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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. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  7. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  10. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  11. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  15. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  16. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  22. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  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. cold — an illness
  3. clip — a video
  4. bear — to put up with
  5. spring — a coil
  6. bear — the animal
  7. bore — gave birth
  8. chest — of your body
  9. bore — to tire
  10. vault — in gymnastics
  11. stem — of a plant
  12. clip — to cut
  13. spring — the season
  14. vault — an arched ceiling
  15. bore — to drill
  16. bear — the animal
  17. clip — for paper
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. vault — a safe
  20. spring — of water
  21. stem — to come from
  22. stem — a stem cell
  23. cold — not warm
  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