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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. The light ________________ burned out.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. I've got to change the light ________________.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. Have you settled on a ________________?
  16. She's very handy with a ________________.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. He works in a ________________ mill.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. snap — to click
  4. bulb — of a plant
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. bulb — for light
  9. chest — a box
  10. bat — the animal
  11. chest — of your body
  12. bulb — for light
  13. field — farmland
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. saw — the tool
  17. field — for sport
  18. date — the fruit
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. saw — past of 'see'
  21. field — a subject
  22. saw — the tool
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. date — on the calendar

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