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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 120 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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  13. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  16. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. present — there
  3. cold — an illness
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. chair — a leader
  7. last — final
  8. present — a gift
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. march — the month
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. present — the time now
  13. root — of a word
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. root — the cause
  16. root — of a plant
  17. march — the month
  18. cold — not warm
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. kid — child
  21. last — to go on
  22. march — music
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. kid — to tease

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