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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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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: band · vault · chair · tear · clip · chest · deal · spring

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  12. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  20. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  21. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. chest — a box
  3. chest — of your body
  4. spring — of water
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. spring — a coil
  7. chest — of your body
  8. tear — from crying
  9. deal — a big deal
  10. clip — to cut
  11. chair — to sit on
  12. deal — to handle
  13. tear — from crying
  14. band — a music group
  15. clip — for paper
  16. vault — a safe
  17. tear — to rip
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. chair — a leader
  20. vault — in gymnastics
  21. deal — an agreement
  22. spring — the season
  23. vault — an arched ceiling
  24. clip — a video

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