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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. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  5. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  6. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  7. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  10. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. The ________________ went through the wall.
  14. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. clip — for paper
  4. ground — the earth
  5. bore — to tire
  6. bore — gave birth
  7. bore — to drill
  8. shower — to wash
  9. nail — on a finger
  10. nail — for a hammer
  11. shower — rain
  12. chest — a box
  13. nail — for a hammer
  14. ground — crushed
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. chest — of your body
  17. ground — a position
  18. wind — moving air
  19. prune — to trim
  20. prune — to trim
  21. wind — moving air
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. clip — to cut
  24. clip — a video

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