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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  10. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. snap — to click
  3. field — a subject
  4. bat — the animal
  5. cue — a hint
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. clip — for paper
  8. clip — a video
  9. cue — for pool
  10. cap — a lid
  11. field — for sport
  12. cue — a signal
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. cap — of ice
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. land — a country
  17. land — ground
  18. field — farmland
  19. cap — a hat
  20. chest — of your body
  21. chest — a box
  22. clip — to cut
  23. land — to come down
  24. bat — for baseball

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