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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. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  9. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  10. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  19. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  24. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. clip — a video
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. clip — for paper
  5. race — the arms race
  6. degree — temperature
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. chair — to sit on
  9. race — humankind
  10. chair — a leader
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. fall — to drop
  14. degree — an amount
  15. race — a contest
  16. fall — the season
  17. chest — a box
  18. fall — to drop
  19. bear — the animal
  20. clip — to cut
  21. chest — of your body
  22. degree — from a university
  23. bear — the animal
  24. bear — to put up with

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