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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. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. Have you found your soul ________________?
  5. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. Don't do anything ________________.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  18. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  19. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  20. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  21. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. chair — a leader
  3. field — farmland
  4. mate — a partner
  5. rash — a series
  6. cell — in biology
  7. field — for sport
  8. content — happy
  9. content — the amount
  10. drill — a practice
  11. tear — to rip
  12. rash — hasty
  13. field — a subject
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. tear — from crying
  17. mate — a friend
  18. drill — the tool
  19. drill — army training
  20. cell — a phone
  21. rash — on the skin
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. mate — to breed
  24. tear — from crying

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