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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: spring · chest · kid · row · clip · rest · tear · wound

  1. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. tear — from crying
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. clip — a video
  5. spring — of water
  6. rest — what's left
  7. row — to paddle
  8. spring — the season
  9. chest — of your body
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. chest — of your body
  12. kid — to tease
  13. clip — for paper
  14. clip — to cut
  15. wound — an injury
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. chest — a box
  18. tear — to rip
  19. rest — what's left
  20. row — a line
  21. rest — a break
  22. tear — from crying
  23. kid — child
  24. wound — an injury

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