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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. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  4. Don't do anything ________________.
  5. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. He was locked up in a ________________.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  14. We're on a ________________ here.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  22. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  23. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  24. Let us try to swim against the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. current — happening now
  2. cell — a phone
  3. rash — a series
  4. rash — hasty
  5. cue — a hint
  6. chest — of your body
  7. rash — on the skin
  8. cold — an illness
  9. cell — in a prison
  10. chest — a box
  11. clip — to cut
  12. cold — not warm
  13. cue — a signal
  14. roll — on a roll
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. clip — for paper
  17. cell — in biology
  18. cue — for pool
  19. chest — of your body
  20. clip — a video
  21. current — electric
  22. roll — a cake
  23. roll — a list
  24. current — of water

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