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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  4. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  16. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  17. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  21. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  22. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  23. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  24. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. cold — not warm
  3. stick — to attach or keep to
  4. can — a tin
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. cold — an illness
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. chip — for betting
  11. bat — the animal
  12. can — to be able to
  13. hand — in cards
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. stick — a piece of wood
  16. chip — to eat
  17. can — a tin
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. chip — in a computer
  21. stick — a piece of wood
  22. branch — a division
  23. branch — of a tree
  24. chair — a leader

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