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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: face · chip · chest · march · cell · cold

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  14. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  15. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  18. There's a computer ________________ on the table.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. chest — of your body
  3. chip — for betting
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. chest — a box
  6. cold — not warm
  7. face — to confront
  8. cell — a phone
  9. march — the month
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. march — the month
  12. cold — an illness
  13. face — to point toward
  14. march — music
  15. face — part of the head
  16. cell — in biology
  17. chip — to eat
  18. chip — in a computer

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