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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. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  9. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. chest — of your body
  3. march — the month
  4. chest — of your body
  5. march — music
  6. fall — to drop
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. net — for catching
  10. chest — a box
  11. fan — to cool the air
  12. game — a match
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. march — the month
  15. fall — the season
  16. net — in sport
  17. game — wild animals
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. fall — to drop
  20. spring — a coil
  21. spring — of water
  22. spring — the season
  23. fan — a supporter
  24. net — after costs

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