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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. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  8. I'll be taking the ________________.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. I can't ________________ this cold.
  11. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  12. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  15. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  16. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  21. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. chest — of your body
  3. scale — for weighing
  4. chest — of your body
  5. tear — to rip
  6. land — to come down
  7. bass — the instrument
  8. tube — the underground
  9. chest — a box
  10. stand — to bear
  11. tube — in a tire
  12. bass — the fish
  13. tear — from crying
  14. tube — a container
  15. stand — on your feet
  16. stand — for spectators
  17. land — a country
  18. land — ground
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. scale — size or range
  21. bass — low music
  22. cold — not warm
  23. cold — an illness
  24. scale — in music

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