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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. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. Have you found your soul ________________?
  16. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  21. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — a box
  2. snap — to click
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. pitch — a sales talk
  5. fall — to drop
  6. chest — of your body
  7. chest — of your body
  8. row — a line
  9. clip — to cut
  10. fall — to drop
  11. mate — a friend
  12. row — to paddle
  13. mate — to breed
  14. race — the arms race
  15. mate — a partner
  16. pitch — a sports field
  17. clip — for paper
  18. fall — the season
  19. clip — a video
  20. race — a contest
  21. pitch — completely
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. race — humankind
  24. snap — to snap out of it

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