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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. Did you ________________ the button?
  7. We're almost out of ________________.
  8. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. You don't need to ________________ round.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  17. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  21. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. can — to be able to
  3. chest — of your body
  4. rest — what's left
  5. row — a line
  6. press — to push
  7. pop — soda
  8. rest — a break
  9. chest — of your body
  10. pop — music
  11. bat — the animal
  12. pop — to visit
  13. chest — a box
  14. can — a tin
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. rest — what's left
  17. snap — to snap out of it
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. can — a tin
  21. press — newspapers
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. press — a publisher
  24. row — to paddle

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