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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. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  14. When will it ________________ you to start?
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  17. Did you ________________ the button?
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. wound — an injury
  3. last — final
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. clip — for paper
  6. wind — moving air
  7. march — the month
  8. chest — a box
  9. march — the month
  10. last — finally
  11. wind — moving air
  12. last — to go on
  13. press — a publisher
  14. suit — to fit
  15. wound — an injury
  16. suit — in cards
  17. press — to push
  18. chest — of your body
  19. clip — to cut
  20. suit — clothes
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. press — newspapers
  23. clip — a video
  24. march — music

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