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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. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  4. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  10. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  13. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. cold — not warm
  3. lash — to lash out
  4. craft — boats
  5. clip — to cut
  6. craft — a handicraft
  7. tear — from crying
  8. chest — of your body
  9. pound — a weight
  10. lash — a whip stroke
  11. clip — for paper
  12. face — to confront
  13. craft — a skill
  14. clip — a video
  15. face — to point toward
  16. lash — an eyelash
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. chest — a box
  19. tear — to rip
  20. face — part of the head
  21. cold — an illness
  22. pound — to hit hard
  23. pound — for dogs
  24. tear — from crying

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