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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. He works in a ________________ mill.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. We're on a ________________ here.
  9. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  17. I can't ________________ this cold.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  22. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  23. She's very handy with a ________________.
  24. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a friend
  2. mate — a partner
  3. saw — past of 'see'
  4. prune — to trim
  5. saw — the tool
  6. cold — an illness
  7. chair — a leader
  8. roll — on a roll
  9. roll — a cake
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. cold — not warm
  12. mate — to breed
  13. bat — the animal
  14. chair — a professorship
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. prune — the fruit
  17. stand — to bear
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. stand — for spectators
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. stand — on your feet
  22. roll — a list
  23. saw — the tool
  24. prune — to trim

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