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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. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  5. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. Did you ________________ the meat?
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  17. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. content — the amount
  3. drill — army training
  4. branch — of a tree
  5. file — a document
  6. chair — a leader
  7. branch — a division
  8. file — a line of people
  9. drill — a practice
  10. season — to add flavour
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. land — a country
  13. file — a tool
  14. land — to come down
  15. land — ground
  16. chair — to sit on
  17. season — of the year
  18. content — happy
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. season — in sport
  21. drill — the tool
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. bat — the animal
  24. bat — for baseball

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