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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. The water is too ________________.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. We're on a ________________ here.
  8. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  9. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  10. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  11. How do you ________________ your surname?
  12. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. My father caught me by the ________________.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  24. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. cold — not warm
  3. mine — for digging
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. branch — a division
  6. chest — of your body
  7. roll — on a roll
  8. club — for golf
  9. roll — a cake
  10. arm — a part of something
  11. spell — letters
  12. branch — of a tree
  13. chest — a box
  14. cold — an illness
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. spell — a short time
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. arm — part of the body
  20. club — a group
  21. club — for dancing
  22. spell — magic
  23. roll — a list
  24. branch — of a bank

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