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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. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. Don't do anything ________________.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  9. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  10. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  11. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  12. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  13. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. The ________________ market has crashed.
  17. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  18. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  23. That must've been a ________________.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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. chair — a professorship
  4. rash — hasty
  5. degree — an amount
  6. march — music
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. trunk — of a tree
  9. rash — on the skin
  10. rush — to hurry
  11. stock — goods
  12. rash — a series
  13. trunk — of a car
  14. chair — a leader
  15. degree — temperature
  16. stock — shares
  17. fork — a garden tool
  18. trunk — of an elephant
  19. march — the month
  20. rush — hurry
  21. march — the month
  22. fork — to eat with
  23. rush — a thrill
  24. fork — in a road

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