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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 water is too ________________.
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. cold — not warm
  3. last — to go on
  4. spell — letters
  5. spell — magic
  6. field — a subject
  7. row — a line
  8. field — farmland
  9. chair — a leader
  10. field — for sport
  11. rest — a break
  12. cold — an illness
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. last — finally
  15. spell — a short time
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. last — final
  18. chest — of your body
  19. rest — what's left
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. row — to paddle
  22. chest — of your body
  23. chest — a box
  24. rest — what's left

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