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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: clip · row · pound · charge · march · chest · straw · fall

  1. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. The tickets are free of ________________.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. charge — electricity
  2. fall — to drop
  3. chest — a box
  4. row — a line
  5. charge — a price
  6. chest — of your body
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. pound — a weight
  9. clip — for paper
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. row — to paddle
  12. pound — for dogs
  13. clip — a video
  14. march — the month
  15. fall — the season
  16. fall — to drop
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. march — the month
  19. march — music
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. charge — in control
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. chest — of your body
  24. clip — to cut

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