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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. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  9. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  16. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  17. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. We're on a ________________ here.
  20. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. That was ________________ to happen.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. spring — a coil
  3. clip — to cut
  4. spring — of water
  5. ground — the earth
  6. spell — letters
  7. chest — a box
  8. roll — a list
  9. bank — for money
  10. chest — of your body
  11. bound — obliged
  12. clip — for paper
  13. ground — a position
  14. spell — a short time
  15. bound — tied together
  16. bank — of a river
  17. roll — a cake
  18. clip — a video
  19. roll — on a roll
  20. bank — for money
  21. spell — magic
  22. ground — crushed
  23. spring — the season
  24. bound — certain

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