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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: hand · tear · rest · rush · wind · chest · wound · field

  1. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. That must've been a ________________.
  14. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — a box
  2. tear — from crying
  3. tear — to rip
  4. wound — an injury
  5. rush — to hurry
  6. chest — of your body
  7. rest — what's left
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. field — for sport
  10. wind — moving air
  11. rush — hurry
  12. wind — moving air
  13. rush — a thrill
  14. rest — a break
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. hand — help
  17. field — a subject
  18. tear — from crying
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. field — farmland
  21. chest — of your body
  22. wound — an injury
  23. hand — in cards
  24. rest — what's left

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