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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. branch — of a tree
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. game — a match
  7. degree — from a university
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. kid — child
  10. branch — a division
  11. degree — an amount
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. kid — to tease
  15. game — wild animals
  16. chair — a professorship
  17. degree — temperature
  18. branch — of a bank

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