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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. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  11. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  14. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. squash — the sport
  3. clip — a video
  4. fall — the season
  5. clip — for paper
  6. fall — to drop
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. clip — to cut
  9. squash — to crush
  10. band — a rubber band
  11. board — to get on
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. board — a committee
  14. fall — to drop
  15. row — a line
  16. squash — the vegetable
  17. row — to paddle
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. mine — for digging
  20. chest — a box
  21. board — a flat piece
  22. chest — of your body
  23. band — a ring
  24. band — a music group

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