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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. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  14. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  22. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  23. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  24. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. kid — to tease
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. stock — shares
  6. court — for sport
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. prune — to trim
  9. stock — a soup base
  10. tear — to rip
  11. kid — child
  12. court — of law
  13. bass — low music
  14. prune — to trim
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. mine — for digging
  17. tear — from crying
  18. bass — the instrument
  19. court — of a king
  20. tear — from crying
  21. stock — goods
  22. chair — a professorship
  23. chair — a leader
  24. bass — the fish

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