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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 116 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. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  9. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  10. He works in a ________________ mill.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  14. She's very handy with a ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. Did you ________________ the meat?
  20. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. last — final
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. season — of the year
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. season — in sport
  9. chair — a leader
  10. saw — the tool
  11. march — the month
  12. wound — an injury
  13. saw — past of 'see'
  14. saw — the tool
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. last — to go on
  17. last — finally
  18. hand — in cards
  19. season — to add flavour
  20. march — the month
  21. capital — money
  22. hand — help
  23. march — music
  24. capital — a city

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