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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. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  2. Did you ________________ the meat?
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  10. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  11. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Have you found your soul ________________?
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  17. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  20. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  23. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chip — to eat
  2. season — to add flavour
  3. chair — a leader
  4. season — of the year
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. stem — of a plant
  7. mine — for digging
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. stem — a stem cell
  10. mate — to breed
  11. chip — in a computer
  12. cold — an illness
  13. mate — a partner
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. kid — to tease
  16. chair — to sit on
  17. stem — to come from
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. chair — a professorship
  20. chip — for betting
  21. cold — not warm
  22. season — in sport
  23. mate — a friend
  24. kid — child

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