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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 · tear · rule · hand · race · root · leaves · lean

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  5. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  6. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  7. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  8. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  9. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  10. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  21. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  22. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. chest — of your body
  3. tear — to rip
  4. root — of a word
  5. lean — thin
  6. rule — to rule out
  7. rule — a law
  8. leaves — lets stay
  9. leaves — to go away
  10. rule — government
  11. hand — in cards
  12. race — a contest
  13. race — the arms race
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. chest — of your body
  16. root — the cause
  17. tear — from crying
  18. lean — to bend
  19. race — humankind
  20. lean — to rest against
  21. leaves — of a tree
  22. root — of a plant
  23. tear — from crying
  24. chest — a box

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