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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. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  9. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. The King held a masked ________________.
  22. Where did you ________________ them?
  23. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  24. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. cold — not warm
  3. ball — a great time
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. march — the month
  6. field — for sport
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. mug — a cup
  9. pitch — completely
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. field — a subject
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. ball — a round shape
  14. chair — a leader
  15. march — music
  16. cold — an illness
  17. march — the month
  18. mug — a face
  19. field — farmland
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. ball — a dance
  22. mug — to rob
  23. pitch — a sports field
  24. pitch — a sales talk

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