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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 124 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. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — a phone
  2. ground — crushed
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. land — to come down
  7. branch — of a bank
  8. cold — an illness
  9. branch — a division
  10. cell — in biology
  11. game — a match
  12. drill — a practice
  13. ground — a position
  14. game — wild animals
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. cold — not warm
  17. chair — to sit on
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. chair — a leader
  20. drill — army training
  21. ground — the earth
  22. land — a country
  23. land — ground
  24. drill — the tool

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