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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. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  5. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  20. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. march — the month
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. straw — a straw man
  5. chair — to sit on
  6. wound — an injury
  7. degree — from a university
  8. march — music
  9. file — a line of people
  10. wound — an injury
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. file — a document
  13. chip — in a computer
  14. bark — to shout
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. march — the month
  18. degree — an amount
  19. chip — for betting
  20. bark — of a tree
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. file — a tool
  23. chip — to eat
  24. degree — temperature

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