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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  4. Don't do anything ________________.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. The tickets are free of ________________.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. Have you met the new head ________________?
  16. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  19. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  20. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. rash — on the skin
  4. rash — hasty
  5. chest — of your body
  6. charge — a price
  7. wind — moving air
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. clip — to cut
  10. chest — a box
  11. chest — of your body
  12. clip — a video
  13. clip — for paper
  14. game — a match
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. charge — in control
  17. row — to paddle
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. coach — pulled by horses
  20. rash — a series
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. charge — electricity
  23. wind — moving air
  24. row — a line

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