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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: chest · rest · trunk · cold · snap · row · cell · wound

  1. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. He was locked up in a ________________.
  7. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. rest — what's left
  3. snap — to click
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cold — an illness
  6. cell — in a prison
  7. rest — what's left
  8. wound — an injury
  9. trunk — of a car
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. wound — an injury
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. chest — of your body
  14. cold — not warm
  15. chest — a box
  16. chest — of your body
  17. rest — a break
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. cell — a phone
  20. cell — in biology
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. trunk — of a tree
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. row — to paddle

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