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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. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  10. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  17. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  18. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. last — to go on
  3. last — final
  4. land — ground
  5. land — to come down
  6. rock — music
  7. last — finally
  8. wound — an injury
  9. rock — to move gently
  10. bass — the fish
  11. shower — rain
  12. cap — a hat
  13. chest — a box
  14. land — a country
  15. shower — to wash
  16. bass — low music
  17. bass — the instrument
  18. cap — of ice
  19. wound — an injury
  20. chest — of your body
  21. cap — a lid
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. rock — a stone
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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