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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  2. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  7. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  19. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. wound — past of 'wind'
  2. foot — the bottom
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. chest — a box
  5. spring — of water
  6. pit — in a race
  7. foot — part of the body
  8. file — a document
  9. chest — of your body
  10. wound — an injury
  11. clip — to cut
  12. spring — a coil
  13. wound — an injury
  14. file — a line of people
  15. pit — a hole
  16. clip — for paper
  17. chest — of your body
  18. foot — a measure
  19. pit — a fruit stone
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. bat — the animal
  22. file — a tool
  23. clip — a video
  24. spring — the season

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com