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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: chip · hide · wake · hand · swing · chest · cold · clip

  1. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. David sat on the ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  16. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  20. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  21. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — before a funeral
  2. clip — for paper
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. hide — to keep secret
  5. hand — in cards
  6. chest — of your body
  7. chest — of your body
  8. swing — music
  9. hand — help
  10. cold — not warm
  11. chip — to eat
  12. chest — a box
  13. swing — to play on
  14. cold — an illness
  15. hide — animal skin
  16. hide — to keep secret
  17. clip — a video
  18. clip — to cut
  19. chip — in a computer
  20. chip — for betting
  21. wake — a trail
  22. swing — in golf
  23. wake — to stop sleeping
  24. cold — the Cold War

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