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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. The King held a masked ________________.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. David sat on the ________________.
  16. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a dance
  2. chest — a box
  3. wound — an injury
  4. ball — a great time
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. chest — of your body
  8. swing — in golf
  9. ball — a round shape
  10. last — final
  11. field — for sport
  12. wound — an injury
  13. last — finally
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. swing — to play on
  16. chair — a leader
  17. last — to go on
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. bat — the animal
  21. field — a subject
  22. swing — music
  23. field — farmland
  24. chest — of your body

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