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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. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  12. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. chair — a leader
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. wind — moving air
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. calf — of the leg
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. drill — the tool
  10. wind — moving air
  11. chair — a professorship
  12. calf — a young animal
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. file — a tool
  15. snap — to click
  16. bat — the animal
  17. drill — a practice
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. file — a document
  21. file — a line of people
  22. calf — a young animal
  23. drill — army training
  24. straw — dry grass

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