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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 assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  4. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  9. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  10. David sat on the ________________.
  11. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. fine — high quality
  4. present — there
  5. cell — a phone
  6. field — farmland
  7. field — a subject
  8. fine — a penalty
  9. present — a gift
  10. swing — to play on
  11. swing — music
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. prune — to trim
  14. present — the time now
  15. field — for sport
  16. prune — to trim
  17. prune — the fruit
  18. swing — in golf
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. chair — a professorship
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. chair — a leader
  24. cell — in biology

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