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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  19. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  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. cold — an illness
  2. chest — a box
  3. clip — for paper
  4. chair — a leader
  5. firm — steady
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. row — to paddle
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. chest — of your body
  10. chest — of your body
  11. clip — to cut
  12. wound — an injury
  13. wind — moving air
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. chair — a professorship
  17. cold — not warm
  18. firm — decided
  19. firm — a company
  20. wind — moving air
  21. wound — an injury
  22. clip — a video
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  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