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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: chest · spring · branch · race · pound · kid · chair · snap

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  24. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. pound — for dogs
  4. spring — a coil
  5. pound — a weight
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. branch — of a bank
  8. spring — of water
  9. race — a contest
  10. chest — of your body
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. spring — the season
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. pound — to hit hard
  15. race — the arms race
  16. branch — a division
  17. race — humankind
  18. chest — a box
  19. chest — of your body
  20. branch — of a tree
  21. kid — to tease
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. snap — to click
  24. chair — a leader

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