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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. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  3. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. The tickets are free of ________________.
  9. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. mark — a trace
  3. charge — electricity
  4. chest — of your body
  5. chair — a leader
  6. mark — to pay attention
  7. chest — of your body
  8. charge — a price
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. last — finally
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. hand — help
  15. game — a match
  16. chest — a box
  17. charge — in control
  18. hand — in cards
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. last — final
  21. last — to go on
  22. mark — a grade
  23. game — wild animals
  24. hand — part of the 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