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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: straw · chest · cell · mine · mouse · band · perch · content

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  12. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. chest — of your body
  4. content — happy
  5. mouse — for a computer
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. mine — for digging
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. cell — in biology
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. perch — the fish
  13. chest — of your body
  14. mouse — the animal
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. band — a music group
  17. cell — a phone
  18. chest — a box
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. mouse — the animal
  22. content — the amount
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. straw — dry grass

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