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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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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: clip · hand · rush · wound · march · season · present · chest

  1. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. That must've been a ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. Did you ________________ the meat?
  13. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  20. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. chest — a box
  3. present — there
  4. chest — of your body
  5. clip — to cut
  6. march — the month
  7. present — a gift
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. rush — a thrill
  10. clip — for paper
  11. wound — an injury
  12. season — to add flavour
  13. present — the time now
  14. march — the month
  15. chest — of your body
  16. clip — a video
  17. hand — in cards
  18. wound — an injury
  19. rush — to hurry
  20. season — of the year
  21. hand — help
  22. season — in sport
  23. march — music
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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