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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. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. The ________________ took off on time.
  7. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  8. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  17. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  18. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  21. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. cold — not warm
  3. plane — a tool
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. plane — an aircraft
  7. net — in sport
  8. kick — a thrill
  9. kid — child
  10. chest — a box
  11. trunk — of a car
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. cold — an illness
  14. kick — with a leg
  15. net — for catching
  16. trunk — of an elephant
  17. net — after costs
  18. plane — in geometry
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. trunk — of a tree
  21. kick — in football
  22. kid — to tease
  23. chest — of your body
  24. straw — a straw man

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