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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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468
Word bank
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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. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. I'll be taking the ________________.
  7. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  15. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  16. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  24. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. lash — an eyelash
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. cold — not warm
  5. wind — moving air
  6. tube — the underground
  7. lash — to lash out
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. prune — to trim
  11. prune — to trim
  12. cap — a lid
  13. wind — moving air
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. tube — a container
  16. prune — the fruit
  17. cold — an illness
  18. lash — a whip stroke
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. perch — the fish
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. cap — of ice
  24. cap — a hat

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