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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Did you ________________ the button?
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. Where did you ________________ them?
  18. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. cold — an illness
  3. field — a subject
  4. mug — a cup
  5. wound — an injury
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. chest — a box
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. chest — of your body
  10. wind — moving air
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. cold — not warm
  14. press — to push
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. wind — moving air
  17. mug — to rob
  18. press — a publisher
  19. wound — an injury
  20. press — newspapers
  21. bark — to shout
  22. field — farmland
  23. field — for sport
  24. mug — a face

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