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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: craft · cold · chip · clip · chest · bulb · cell · tear

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. The light ________________ burned out.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  12. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I've got to change the light ________________.
  22. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  23. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. tear — from crying
  3. cold — not warm
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. bulb — for light
  6. cell — a phone
  7. craft — a skill
  8. chest — a box
  9. bulb — of a plant
  10. tear — from crying
  11. cell — in biology
  12. chip — to eat
  13. chest — of your body
  14. clip — for paper
  15. craft — a handicraft
  16. clip — a video
  17. tear — to rip
  18. cold — an illness
  19. chip — in a computer
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. bulb — for light
  22. craft — boats
  23. chip — for betting
  24. clip — to cut

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