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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. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  3. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  8. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. That must've been a ________________.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  24. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. rush — hurry
  3. drill — the tool
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. kid — child
  6. march — the month
  7. pound — for dogs
  8. drill — army training
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. content — the amount
  11. race — the arms race
  12. chair — a leader
  13. pound — to hit hard
  14. drill — a practice
  15. race — a contest
  16. race — humankind
  17. kid — to tease
  18. content — happy
  19. march — the month
  20. rush — a thrill
  21. march — music
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. rush — to hurry
  24. pound — a weight

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