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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 120 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: kid · chest · bass · clip · press · hand · tear · ball

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Did you ________________ the button?
  14. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  15. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  16. The King held a masked ________________.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  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. kid — to tease
  2. hand — in cards
  3. chest — a box
  4. clip — for paper
  5. ball — a great time
  6. hand — help
  7. bass — the fish
  8. bass — the instrument
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. bass — low music
  11. chest — of your body
  12. kid — child
  13. press — to push
  14. press — a publisher
  15. ball — a round shape
  16. ball — a dance
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. clip — a video
  19. tear — to rip
  20. press — newspapers
  21. clip — to cut
  22. tear — from crying
  23. tear — from crying
  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