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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: mark · clip · row · chip · bat · chest · charge · cold

  1. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  2. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  3. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  6. The tickets are free of ________________.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  15. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — to pay attention
  2. mark — a trace
  3. chip — to eat
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. charge — in control
  6. charge — a price
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. chip — in a computer
  9. row — to paddle
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. charge — electricity
  12. row — a line
  13. chest — of your body
  14. chip — for betting
  15. mark — a grade
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. cold — not warm
  18. chest — a box
  19. cold — an illness
  20. clip — for paper
  21. clip — a video
  22. clip — to cut
  23. chest — of your body
  24. bat — 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