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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 120 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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  5. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. My father caught me by the ________________.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  21. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. degree — from a university
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. arm — a part of something
  5. race — humankind
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. chest — of your body
  9. mine — for digging
  10. race — the arms race
  11. fall — to drop
  12. degree — temperature
  13. fall — the season
  14. arm — part of the body
  15. chest — of your body
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. fall — to drop
  18. chair — a leader
  19. degree — an amount
  20. arm — part of the body
  21. race — a contest
  22. chest — a box
  23. chair — a professorship
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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