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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 120 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. When are we going to ________________?
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  12. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. land — to come down
  3. land — ground
  4. tear — to rip
  5. wax — to grow
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. land — a country
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. chest — of your body
  10. tear — from crying
  11. wax — in the ear
  12. face — to confront
  13. game — a match
  14. snap — to click
  15. game — wild animals
  16. face — to point toward
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. chest — a box
  20. tear — from crying
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. face — part of the head
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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