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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: shower · chip · toast · face · straw · bat · chest · clip

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  13. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  14. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. face — to confront
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. bat — the animal
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. face — part of the head
  8. shower — rain
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. toast — bread
  11. clip — a video
  12. face — to point toward
  13. chip — to eat
  14. chip — for betting
  15. chest — a box
  16. chest — of your body
  17. shower — to wash
  18. toast — the most admired
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. clip — for paper
  21. toast — a drink to someone
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. chip — in a computer
  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