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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. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  18. The ________________ took off on time.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  24. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. march — the month
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. spring — a coil
  6. cell — in biology
  7. wake — before a funeral
  8. spring — of water
  9. capital — money
  10. march — music
  11. wake — a trail
  12. cell — a phone
  13. spring — the season
  14. chair — a leader
  15. band — a music group
  16. capital — a city
  17. wake — to stop sleeping
  18. plane — an aircraft
  19. band — a ring
  20. plane — a tool
  21. march — the month
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. plane — in geometry
  24. chair — to sit on

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