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

Word bank: bear · clip · scale · chest · race · rest · mine · cold

  1. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  4. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  8. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — a box
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. rest — a break
  4. bear — the animal
  5. race — the arms race
  6. race — humankind
  7. race — a contest
  8. bear — to put up with
  9. scale — size or range
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. cold — an illness
  12. rest — what's left
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. bear — the animal
  15. chest — of your body
  16. chest — of your body
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. rest — what's left
  19. clip — to cut
  20. cold — not warm
  21. clip — a video
  22. clip — for paper
  23. scale — in music
  24. mine — for digging

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