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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. David sat on the ________________.
  3. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. That was ________________ to happen.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  17. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  20. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. swing — to play on
  3. cap — a lid
  4. degree — an amount
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. clip — to cut
  7. cell — in biology
  8. swing — in golf
  9. bound — tied together
  10. degree — from a university
  11. cell — a phone
  12. chest — of your body
  13. clip — a video
  14. bound — certain
  15. degree — temperature
  16. cap — of ice
  17. wax — to grow
  18. swing — music
  19. cap — a hat
  20. bound — obliged
  21. chest — a box
  22. clip — for paper
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. wax — for sculpting

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