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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 · pass · cold · wound · rush · rash · cell · snap

  1. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. That must've been a ________________.
  3. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  6. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  7. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  13. Don't do anything ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. rush — a thrill
  3. rash — on the skin
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. snap — to speak sharply
  6. pass — a permit
  7. pass — to spend time
  8. chest — of your body
  9. cell — in biology
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. wound — an injury
  12. rush — to hurry
  13. rash — hasty
  14. cold — an illness
  15. cold — not warm
  16. snap — to click
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. pass — to succeed
  19. cell — a phone
  20. rash — a series
  21. chest — a box
  22. wound — an injury
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. chest — of your body

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