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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  13. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  14. You don't need to ________________ round.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. We're almost out of ________________.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  20. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. chest — of your body
  3. row — a line
  4. bear — to put up with
  5. clip — to cut
  6. chest — of your body
  7. clip — for paper
  8. lean — to bend
  9. clip — a video
  10. bear — the animal
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. lean — thin
  13. bear — the animal
  14. pop — to visit
  15. race — the arms race
  16. pop — soda
  17. chest — a box
  18. row — to paddle
  19. race — a contest
  20. lean — to rest against
  21. race — humankind
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. pop — music

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