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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 120 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. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  7. You don't need to ________________ round.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. My father caught me by the ________________.
  18. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  19. We're almost out of ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. fall — to drop
  3. chest — of your body
  4. pop — music
  5. cold — not warm
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. pop — to visit
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. spring — of water
  10. spring — a coil
  11. wind — moving air
  12. fall — to drop
  13. fall — the season
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. spring — the season
  16. mine — for digging
  17. arm — part of the body
  18. arm — a part of something
  19. pop — soda
  20. cold — an illness
  21. wind — moving air
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. chest — a box

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