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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: chest · mouse · straw · chip · rock · field · drill · kid

  1. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  4. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  10. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. Should I buy a wireless ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. mouse — the animal
  2. rock — music
  3. rock — a stone
  4. rock — to move gently
  5. field — a subject
  6. chest — of your body
  7. chip — to eat
  8. kid — to tease
  9. mouse — the animal
  10. chip — in a computer
  11. chest — of your body
  12. drill — the tool
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. field — for sport
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. drill — a practice
  17. chest — a box
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. field — farmland
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. kid — child
  22. chip — for betting
  23. drill — army training
  24. mouse — for a computer

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