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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. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  2. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. The ________________ went through the wall.
  17. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  20. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — for a hammer
  2. wake — before a funeral
  3. chair — a leader
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. root — the cause
  6. chest — of your body
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. bat — the animal
  9. chest — a box
  10. spell — letters
  11. root — of a word
  12. chest — of your body
  13. spell — magic
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. nail — on a finger
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. root — of a plant
  20. wake — to stop sleeping
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. spell — a short time
  23. branch — a division
  24. wake — a trail

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