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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  7. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  14. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  15. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. That must've been a ________________.
  22. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. What do you think of the new ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. clip — for paper
  4. cabinet — a cupboard
  5. chest — a box
  6. drill — the tool
  7. rush — hurry
  8. chest — of your body
  9. cold — an illness
  10. rush — to hurry
  11. row — to paddle
  12. drill — a practice
  13. branch — of a bank
  14. drill — army training
  15. branch — a division
  16. cold — not warm
  17. branch — of a tree
  18. clip — a video
  19. row — a line
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. rush — a thrill
  22. cabinet — ministers
  23. clip — to cut
  24. cabinet — ministers

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