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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've got to change the light ________________.
  2. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. He was locked up in a ________________.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. The light ________________ burned out.
  19. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  20. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.

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

Answer key

  1. bulb — for light
  2. cell — in biology
  3. chest — of your body
  4. hand — help
  5. file — a line of people
  6. file — a document
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. chest — of your body
  9. cell — in a prison
  10. hand — in cards
  11. spring — of water
  12. spring — a coil
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. object — a thing
  15. spring — the season
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. file — a tool
  18. bulb — for light
  19. object — an aim
  20. object — to protest
  21. chest — a box
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. cell — a phone
  24. bulb — of a plant

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