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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: clip · chest · game · rock · sharp · lash · spring · mine

  1. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  24. It's one o'clock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. lash — to lash out
  2. rock — music
  3. chest — of your body
  4. spring — the season
  5. chest — of your body
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. sharp — clever
  8. game — a match
  9. rock — a stone
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. mine — for digging
  12. spring — a coil
  13. lash — an eyelash
  14. clip — a video
  15. clip — to cut
  16. chest — a box
  17. rock — to move gently
  18. clip — for paper
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. game — wild animals
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. spring — of water
  23. lash — a whip stroke
  24. sharp — exactly

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