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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: spring · chest · firm · bear · hand · cell · wound · clip

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  9. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  10. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. clip — for paper
  3. firm — a company
  4. hand — in cards
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. bear — to put up with
  7. wound — an injury
  8. firm — decided
  9. firm — steady
  10. bear — the animal
  11. chest — a box
  12. spring — the season
  13. clip — a video
  14. cell — in biology
  15. spring — a coil
  16. wound — an injury
  17. chest — of your body
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. clip — to cut
  20. bear — the animal
  21. spring — of water
  22. cell — a phone
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. chest — of your body

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