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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. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  6. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  12. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. My mare is ________________ in color.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. I can't ________________ this cold.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. kid — to tease
  3. clip — for paper
  4. chair — a leader
  5. bay — to keep at bay
  6. bay — a part of the sea
  7. last — final
  8. march — music
  9. last — to go on
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. chair — a professorship
  12. stand — on your feet
  13. tear — from crying
  14. bay — a horse colour
  15. tear — from crying
  16. march — the month
  17. stand — to bear
  18. kid — child
  19. last — finally
  20. tear — to rip
  21. clip — a video
  22. clip — to cut
  23. stand — for spectators
  24. march — the month

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