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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. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  5. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  6. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. I'll be taking the ________________.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  23. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. chair — to sit on
  3. spring — a coil
  4. rock — music
  5. root — the cause
  6. rock — a stone
  7. row — a line
  8. spring — the season
  9. spring — of water
  10. field — farmland
  11. chair — a professorship
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. root — of a plant
  15. scale — size or range
  16. tube — in a tire
  17. field — a subject
  18. tube — the underground
  19. scale — in music
  20. rock — to move gently
  21. field — for sport
  22. root — of a word
  23. tube — a container
  24. row — to paddle

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