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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. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. He works in a ________________ mill.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Have you found your soul ________________?
  9. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  10. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. She's very handy with a ________________.
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. cold — not warm
  4. spring — the season
  5. saw — the tool
  6. degree — temperature
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. mate — a partner
  9. drill — army training
  10. mate — a friend
  11. prune — to trim
  12. mate — to breed
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. spring — a coil
  15. saw — the tool
  16. drill — a practice
  17. cold — an illness
  18. drill — the tool
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. degree — an amount
  21. saw — past of 'see'
  22. prune — to trim
  23. degree — from a university
  24. spring — of water

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