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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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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 · club · clip · capital · arm · bear · roll · row

  1. We're on a ________________ here.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  5. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  6. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  7. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  8. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  9. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  10. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  11. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. My father caught me by the ________________.
  16. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  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. roll — on a roll
  2. capital — money
  3. chest — of your body
  4. roll — a list
  5. bear — to put up with
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. bear — the animal
  8. roll — a cake
  9. club — for golf
  10. club — a group
  11. arm — a part of something
  12. row — a line
  13. clip — for paper
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. club — for dancing
  17. chest — a box
  18. row — to paddle
  19. capital — a city
  20. clip — a video
  21. bear — the animal
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. clip — to cut
  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