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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. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. Did you ________________ the button?
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  18. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  19. Have you met the new head ________________?
  20. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  24. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. stem — to come from
  3. stem — of a plant
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. press — a publisher
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. field — farmland
  9. field — for sport
  10. field — a subject
  11. chair — a professorship
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. press — to push
  14. game — wild animals
  15. chair — a leader
  16. game — a match
  17. stem — a stem cell
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. press — newspapers
  21. content — the amount
  22. bat — the animal
  23. coach — pulled by horses
  24. content — happy

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