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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. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. He was locked up in a ________________.
  4. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  17. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  18. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  21. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. My father caught me by the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — in an idiom
  2. chest — of your body
  3. cell — in a prison
  4. object — an aim
  5. clip — to cut
  6. object — to protest
  7. clip — a video
  8. object — a thing
  9. bat — the animal
  10. prune — to trim
  11. chest — of your body
  12. arm — part of the body
  13. cell — in biology
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. prune — to trim
  16. calf — a young animal
  17. calf — of the leg
  18. calf — a young animal
  19. clip — for paper
  20. cell — a phone
  21. arm — a part of something
  22. chest — a box
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. arm — part of the body

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