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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. That was ________________ to happen.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. I'll be taking the ________________.
  20. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. last — to go on
  3. bound — certain
  4. content — happy
  5. tube — a container
  6. bat — the animal
  7. bound — tied together
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. content — the amount
  10. last — finally
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. tube — in a tire
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. bound — obliged
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. chair — a professorship
  18. field — farmland
  19. tube — the underground
  20. chair — to sit on
  21. field — a subject
  22. field — for sport
  23. chair — a leader
  24. bat — in an idiom

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