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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. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. How do you ________________ your surname?
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. wound — an injury
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. land — to come down
  5. land — ground
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. wound — an injury
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. scale — in music
  12. scale — size or range
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. scale — for weighing
  15. march — music
  16. spell — letters
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. land — a country
  19. march — the month
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. march — the month
  22. spell — magic
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. spell — a short time

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