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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  4. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  12. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  13. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  24. She got the top ________________ in the exam.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. pit — a fruit stone
  4. pitch — a sales talk
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. pit — in a race
  8. bat — the animal
  9. clip — for paper
  10. chest — of your body
  11. pitch — a sports field
  12. mark — a trace
  13. pit — a hole
  14. chest — a box
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. pitch — completely
  17. mark — to pay attention
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. snap — to snap out of it
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. clip — a video
  22. clip — to cut
  23. snap — to click
  24. mark — a grade

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