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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. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. Have you found your soul ________________?
  6. He was locked up in a ________________.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  23. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a friend
  2. row — a line
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. spring — of water
  5. mate — a partner
  6. cell — in a prison
  7. cell — a phone
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. mate — to breed
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. perch — the fish
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. drill — army training
  14. drill — a practice
  15. spring — a coil
  16. spring — the season
  17. row — to paddle
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. cell — in biology
  20. chair — a leader
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. drill — the tool
  24. row — a quarrel

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