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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 120 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. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  2. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. It's one o'clock ________________.
  12. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a fruit stone
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. pit — in a race
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. content — happy
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. chair — a leader
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. bat — the animal
  11. sharp — exactly
  12. pit — a hole
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. sharp — clever
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. bark — to shout
  20. row — a line
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. content — the amount
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. row — to paddle

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