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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: net · kid · race · lie · band · chest · wind · snap

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  12. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. snap — to click
  3. snap — to speak sharply
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. snap — to snap out of it
  6. kid — to tease
  7. wind — moving air
  8. lie — an untruth
  9. chest — a box
  10. band — a music group
  11. race — humankind
  12. net — after costs
  13. band — a ring
  14. race — a contest
  15. kid — child
  16. net — in sport
  17. chest — of your body
  18. net — for catching
  19. lie — to recline
  20. wind — moving air
  21. lie — an untruth
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. race — the arms race
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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