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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. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  3. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  7. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  10. Have you settled on a ________________?
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. fall — to drop
  4. cell — in biology
  5. fall — the season
  6. fall — to drop
  7. drill — army training
  8. drill — the tool
  9. squash — the vegetable
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. cell — a phone
  12. file — a document
  13. drill — a practice
  14. date — the fruit
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. squash — to crush
  18. field — farmland
  19. squash — the sport
  20. file — a line of people
  21. field — for sport
  22. field — a subject
  23. chair — to sit on
  24. file — a tool

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