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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. chest — of your body
  3. foot — the bottom
  4. chest — of your body
  5. mine — for digging
  6. chest — a box
  7. band — a ring
  8. band — a music group
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. file — a line of people
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. foot — part of the body
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. land — a country
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. shower — rain
  20. file — a tool
  21. file — a document
  22. land — ground
  23. foot — a measure
  24. land — to come down

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