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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 · wind · face · root · pop · sharp · rest · clip

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. We're almost out of ________________.
  3. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  4. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  8. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. It's one o'clock ________________.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. You don't need to ________________ round.
  14. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  17. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  18. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  21. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. pop — soda
  3. root — of a word
  4. rest — a break
  5. clip — to cut
  6. chest — of your body
  7. pop — music
  8. sharp — clever
  9. wind — moving air
  10. sharp — exactly
  11. chest — of your body
  12. clip — a video
  13. pop — to visit
  14. face — part of the head
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. rest — what's left
  17. root — the cause
  18. face — to point toward
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. root — of a plant
  21. rest — what's left
  22. chest — a box
  23. face — to confront
  24. wind — moving air

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