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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 120 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. The water is too ________________.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  6. My father caught me by the ________________.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  12. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  13. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. He is an ace ________________.
  18. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  19. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. False peace will not ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. chair — a leader
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. arm — part of the body
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. bat — the animal
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. land — ground
  11. last — final
  12. rash — a series
  13. rash — on the skin
  14. rash — hasty
  15. arm — a part of something
  16. cold — an illness
  17. pitcher — in baseball
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. chair — a professorship
  20. last — finally
  21. land — a country
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. land — to come down
  24. last — to go on

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