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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: chest · cold · rash · deal · scale · tear · present · clip

  1. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  3. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  4. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  5. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  6. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  10. Don't do anything ________________.
  11. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  19. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  20. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. deal — a big deal
  3. scale — size or range
  4. present — there
  5. scale — in music
  6. present — a gift
  7. chest — of your body
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. present — the time now
  10. rash — hasty
  11. scale — for weighing
  12. clip — a video
  13. clip — for paper
  14. cold — not warm
  15. tear — to rip
  16. tear — from crying
  17. chest — of your body
  18. deal — to handle
  19. rash — on the skin
  20. rash — a series
  21. clip — to cut
  22. cold — an illness
  23. chest — a box
  24. deal — an agreement

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