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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 116 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 had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  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. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  8. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  14. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  15. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  21. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  24. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. pitch — a sports field
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. kick — in football
  5. chair — a leader
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. kick — with a leg
  8. kick — a thrill
  9. game — wild animals
  10. drill — army training
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. scale — size or range
  14. drill — the tool
  15. pitch — a sales talk
  16. pitch — completely
  17. perch — the fish
  18. game — a match
  19. cold — not warm
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. scale — in music
  23. scale — for weighing
  24. drill — a practice

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