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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. False peace will not ________________.
  2. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  3. That was a fun ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  6. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. He is an ace ________________.
  9. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  12. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  22. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. last — finally
  3. game — a match
  4. cold — an illness
  5. staff — a stick
  6. staff — employees
  7. cold — not warm
  8. pitcher — in baseball
  9. last — final
  10. game — wild animals
  11. staff — employees
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. chair — a leader
  14. file — a document
  15. file — a line of people
  16. snap — to click
  17. file — a tool
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. snap — to speak sharply
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. chair — a professorship
  22. snap — to snap out of it
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. pitcher — a jug

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