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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. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  3. The ________________ took off on time.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  16. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  23. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  24. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. chair — to sit on
  3. plane — an aircraft
  4. march — music
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. mark — to pay attention
  7. degree — temperature
  8. cell — a phone
  9. foot — the bottom
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. cold — an illness
  13. cold — not warm
  14. cell — in biology
  15. plane — in geometry
  16. foot — a measure
  17. march — the month
  18. march — the month
  19. degree — an amount
  20. foot — part of the body
  21. degree — from a university
  22. mark — a trace
  23. mark — a grade
  24. plane — a tool

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