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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  21. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. file — a document
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. capital — money
  5. snap — to click
  6. snap — to snap out of it
  7. file — a line of people
  8. field — a subject
  9. chest — a box
  10. snap — to speak sharply
  11. field — for sport
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. racket — a loud noise
  14. chest — of your body
  15. capital — a city
  16. file — a tool
  17. field — farmland
  18. kid — to tease
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. racket — for tennis
  21. racket — for tennis
  22. kid — child
  23. bark — to shout
  24. bark — a dog's sound

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