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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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468
Word bank
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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. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. That was a fun ________________.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  16. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. chest — of your body
  3. game — a match
  4. fall — to drop
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. snap — to click
  8. capital — a city
  9. fall — the season
  10. chest — a box
  11. fall — to drop
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. capital — money
  15. current — of water
  16. snap — to speak sharply
  17. game — wild animals
  18. kid — child
  19. current — electric
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. current — happening now
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. kid — to tease
  24. game — a kind of play

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