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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  18. It's one o'clock ________________.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. chip — in a computer
  3. hand — help
  4. prune — to trim
  5. degree — from a university
  6. bat — the animal
  7. hand — in cards
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. chest — of your body
  10. sharp — clever
  11. degree — temperature
  12. chest — a box
  13. chip — to eat
  14. wind — moving air
  15. chip — for betting
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. sharp — with an edge
  18. sharp — exactly
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. wind — moving air
  22. degree — an amount
  23. prune — to trim
  24. hand — part of the body

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