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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. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  3. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  4. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  5. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  6. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  7. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. Have you found your soul ________________?
  11. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  12. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  13. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  14. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. That must've been a ________________.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. rule — government
  3. rush — to hurry
  4. cue — a signal
  5. rule — a law
  6. cue — a hint
  7. trunk — of a car
  8. cold — an illness
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. mate — a partner
  11. rush — hurry
  12. mate — a friend
  13. rule — to rule out
  14. mate — to breed
  15. chest — a box
  16. rush — a thrill
  17. chest — of your body
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. cue — for pool
  22. cold — not warm
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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