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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. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  14. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  15. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. The ball is in your ________________.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. The elephant has a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. capital — money
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. snap — to click
  5. net — in sport
  6. row — a line
  7. court — of a king
  8. kid — to tease
  9. row — to paddle
  10. court — of law
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. chair — a leader
  13. trunk — of a tree
  14. net — after costs
  15. snap — to speak sharply
  16. kid — child
  17. court — for sport
  18. capital — a city
  19. net — for catching
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. trunk — of an elephant

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