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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. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  2. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.

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

Answer key

  1. race — a contest
  2. chair — to sit on
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. kid — child
  5. chair — a leader
  6. race — humankind
  7. deal — an agreement
  8. wound — an injury
  9. kid — to tease
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. wind — moving air
  12. degree — an amount
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. degree — from a university
  15. wind — moving air
  16. wound — an injury
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. degree — temperature
  20. deal — a big deal
  21. race — the arms race
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. deal — to handle

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