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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. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  3. We're almost out of ________________.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. You don't need to ________________ round.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  21. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. deal — an agreement
  3. pop — soda
  4. hand — help
  5. deal — a big deal
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. content — happy
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. pop — music
  11. content — the amount
  12. wake — to stop sleeping
  13. hand — in cards
  14. wind — moving air
  15. wind — moving air
  16. chest — of your body
  17. pop — to visit
  18. chest — a box
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. wake — before a funeral
  21. deal — to handle
  22. mine — for digging
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. wake — a trail

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