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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've got the luggage in my ________________.
  2. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  22. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. The ________________ took off on time.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of a car
  2. rule — to rule out
  3. row — a line
  4. chest — of your body
  5. cold — not warm
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. snap — to click
  8. chest — of your body
  9. plane — in geometry
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. cold — an illness
  13. rule — government
  14. chest — a box
  15. snap — to snap out of it
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. rule — a law
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. plane — a tool
  22. trunk — of a tree
  23. row — to paddle
  24. plane — an aircraft

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