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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 116 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 university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  7. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  15. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  16. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  17. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  18. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  19. What do you think of the new ________________?
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. degree — from a university
  3. last — final
  4. last — finally
  5. spring — the season
  6. wax — for sculpting
  7. wax — to grow
  8. chair — a leader
  9. last — to go on
  10. game — wild animals
  11. drill — the tool
  12. spring — a coil
  13. degree — an amount
  14. cabinet — ministers
  15. drill — army training
  16. wax — in the ear
  17. cabinet — a cupboard
  18. chair — a professorship
  19. cabinet — ministers
  20. spring — of water
  21. degree — temperature
  22. game — a match
  23. drill — a practice
  24. game — a kind of play

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