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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. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  20. What do you think of the new ________________?
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. current — of water
  2. chest — of your body
  3. fall — the season
  4. snap — to click
  5. file — a line of people
  6. game — wild animals
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. chest — of your body
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. current — happening now
  11. row — a line
  12. snap — to speak sharply
  13. file — a tool
  14. chest — a box
  15. cabinet — ministers
  16. row — to paddle
  17. fall — to drop
  18. file — a document
  19. fall — to drop
  20. cabinet — ministers
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. current — electric
  23. game — a match
  24. cabinet — a cupboard

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