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

  1. That was a fun ________________.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  8. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. bat — the animal
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. fall — to drop
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. fall — to drop
  8. kick — in football
  9. chest — of your body
  10. kick — with a leg
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. fall — the season
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. chest — a box
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. chest — of your body
  17. game — wild animals
  18. chair — a leader

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