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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. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. The ________________ market has crashed.
  14. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  15. Don't do anything ________________.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  23. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. pitch — completely
  3. chest — of your body
  4. row — to paddle
  5. chair — a leader
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. cold — an illness
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. rash — on the skin
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. row — a line
  13. stock — shares
  14. pitch — a sales talk
  15. rash — hasty
  16. chest — a box
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. mine — for digging
  19. cold — not warm
  20. stock — goods
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. rash — a series
  23. pitch — a sports field
  24. chest — of your body

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