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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. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  13. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  18. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  19. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  24. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — in biology
  2. chest — a box
  3. bear — to put up with
  4. chest — of your body
  5. bear — the animal
  6. clip — a video
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. chest — of your body
  9. field — for sport
  10. cell — a phone
  11. field — farmland
  12. net — after costs
  13. scale — size or range
  14. clip — to cut
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. field — a subject
  17. bear — the animal
  18. scale — for weighing
  19. net — for catching
  20. clip — for paper
  21. net — in sport
  22. row — to paddle
  23. scale — in music
  24. row — a line

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