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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: row · straw · date · face · hand · chest · wind · bass

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. Have you settled on a ________________?
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  11. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  14. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. chest — of your body
  3. bass — the instrument
  4. wind — moving air
  5. face — to point toward
  6. chest — a box
  7. date — on the calendar
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. hand — in cards
  10. face — to confront
  11. bass — the fish
  12. wind — moving air
  13. face — part of the head
  14. bass — low music
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. date — the fruit
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. chest — of your body
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. row — a line
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. row — to paddle

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