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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: cold · perch · racket · straw · stock · chest · clip · kick

  1. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. The ________________ market has crashed.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  14. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  15. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  22. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. What's the difference between broth and ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. clip — to cut
  3. stock — shares
  4. clip — a video
  5. cold — not warm
  6. kick — with a leg
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. racket — for tennis
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. racket — for tennis
  12. chest — a box
  13. stock — goods
  14. kick — in football
  15. racket — a loud noise
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. chest — of your body
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. cold — an illness
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. kick — a thrill
  22. perch — the fish
  23. clip — for paper
  24. stock — a soup base

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