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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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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: tear · nail · wake · fan · cold · game · chest · chair

  1. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. The ________________ went through the wall.
  9. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  10. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  17. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  18. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?

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

Answer key

  1. nail — for a hammer
  2. chest — of your body
  3. chest — of your body
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. chair — a leader
  6. cold — not warm
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. nail — on a finger
  10. fan — to cool the air
  11. cold — an illness
  12. chest — a box
  13. wake — before a funeral
  14. game — wild animals
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. wake — to stop sleeping
  17. chair — a professorship
  18. wake — a trail
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. tear — from crying
  21. tear — from crying
  22. tear — to rip
  23. game — a match
  24. fan — a supporter

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