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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 felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  5. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  13. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  14. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  22. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  23. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  24. David sat on the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. row — a line
  3. clip — for paper
  4. drill — a practice
  5. branch — a division
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. chest — a box
  8. clip — a video
  9. drill — the tool
  10. drill — army training
  11. prune — to trim
  12. swing — music
  13. branch — of a bank
  14. rule — government
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. prune — to trim
  17. clip — to cut
  18. chest — of your body
  19. swing — in golf
  20. row — to paddle
  21. rule — a law
  22. row — a quarrel
  23. rule — to rule out
  24. swing — to play on

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