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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: march · chest · lean · bear · clip · cap · hand · drill

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  4. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  11. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  12. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  13. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  24. A black ________________ roamed the forest.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. clip — for paper
  3. lean — to rest against
  4. cap — of ice
  5. hand — in cards
  6. lean — thin
  7. chest — of your body
  8. drill — a practice
  9. hand — help
  10. march — the month
  11. lean — to bend
  12. bear — to put up with
  13. drill — the tool
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. march — the month
  16. drill — army training
  17. chest — a box
  18. cap — a hat
  19. march — music
  20. cap — a lid
  21. clip — a video
  22. clip — to cut
  23. bear — the animal
  24. bear — the animal

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