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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. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. This piece is in a major ________________.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  9. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  10. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  11. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  17. It's one o'clock ________________.
  18. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  19. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. cold — not warm
  3. wake — before a funeral
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. kid — child
  6. key — in music
  7. kid — to tease
  8. key — the most important part
  9. club — a group
  10. key — for a lock
  11. sharp — clever
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. sharp — with an edge
  15. field — for sport
  16. wake — a trail
  17. sharp — exactly
  18. club — for dancing
  19. chair — a professorship
  20. field — a subject
  21. wake — to stop sleeping
  22. cold — an illness
  23. field — farmland
  24. club — for golf

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