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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: band · wound · track · firm · bat · rest · tear · chest

  1. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  2. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  12. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. firm — decided
  2. track — to keep track
  3. chest — a box
  4. firm — steady
  5. tear — to rip
  6. firm — a company
  7. chest — of your body
  8. rest — a break
  9. wound — an injury
  10. bat — the animal
  11. track — a song
  12. rest — what's left
  13. wound — an injury
  14. rest — what's left
  15. band — a ring
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. chest — of your body
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. band — a music group
  20. tear — from crying
  21. track — a path
  22. tear — from crying
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. bat — for baseball

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