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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: fall · chest · lean · tube · clip · squash · court · straw

  1. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  4. I'll be taking the ________________.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  17. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  23. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the vegetable
  2. court — of law
  3. lean — thin
  4. tube — the underground
  5. fall — to drop
  6. squash — the sport
  7. chest — of your body
  8. chest — of your body
  9. clip — to cut
  10. tube — in a tire
  11. court — of a king
  12. clip — a video
  13. squash — to crush
  14. court — for sport
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. lean — to bend
  17. tube — a container
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. clip — for paper
  20. fall — to drop
  21. chest — a box
  22. lean — to rest against
  23. fall — the season
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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