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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. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  5. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  11. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  12. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. That must've been a ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. Have you met the new head ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. squash — to crush
  3. chest — of your body
  4. rush — hurry
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. chest — a box
  7. hand — in cards
  8. wound — an injury
  9. clip — to cut
  10. squash — the sport
  11. rush — to hurry
  12. squash — the vegetable
  13. spring — of water
  14. clip — for paper
  15. spring — the season
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. hand — help
  18. coach — pulled by horses
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. rush — a thrill
  21. clip — a video
  22. chest — of your body
  23. spring — a coil
  24. coach — a trainer

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