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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. land — to come down
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. land — a country
  5. tube — the underground
  6. cell — a phone
  7. shower — rain
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. capital — money
  10. cell — in biology
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. chest — of your body
  13. tube — a container
  14. clip — a video
  15. shower — to wash
  16. land — ground
  17. capital — a city
  18. kid — to tease
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. kid — child
  21. clip — for paper
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. chest — a box
  24. clip — to cut

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