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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. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  2. The tickets are free of ________________.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  12. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. charge — electricity
  2. charge — a price
  3. chest — of your body
  4. spring — a coil
  5. chest — of your body
  6. rock — music
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. rock — to move gently
  9. field — for sport
  10. clip — to cut
  11. last — final
  12. rock — a stone
  13. chest — a box
  14. field — farmland
  15. field — a subject
  16. last — finally
  17. charge — in control
  18. spring — of water
  19. last — to go on
  20. spring — the season
  21. cell — a phone
  22. cell — in biology
  23. clip — a video
  24. clip — for paper

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