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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: chest · mate · wound · row · last · wind · file · coach

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  11. Have you met the new head ________________?
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. Have you found your soul ________________?
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. row — a line
  3. wound — an injury
  4. mate — a friend
  5. wound — an injury
  6. chest — a box
  7. last — finally
  8. wind — moving air
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. mate — to breed
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. chest — of your body
  13. chest — of your body
  14. coach — pulled by horses
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. wind — moving air
  17. file — a document
  18. file — a tool
  19. mate — a partner
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. row — to paddle
  23. last — to go on
  24. file — a line of people

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