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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  6. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  15. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  21. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  22. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. land — ground
  3. chest — of your body
  4. field — farmland
  5. stick — to attach or keep to
  6. pound — a weight
  7. field — for sport
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. land — to come down
  10. pound — for dogs
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. bark — to shout
  13. hand — in cards
  14. bark — a dog's sound
  15. bark — of a tree
  16. land — a country
  17. chest — a box
  18. shower — to wash
  19. field — a subject
  20. stick — a piece of wood
  21. pound — to hit hard
  22. stick — a piece of wood
  23. shower — rain
  24. hand — help

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