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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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. She's very handy with a ________________.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. He works in a ________________ mill.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  23. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. capital — money
  3. saw — the tool
  4. cell — in biology
  5. last — to go on
  6. hand — help
  7. saw — the tool
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. last — final
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. hand — in cards
  14. cell — a phone
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. capital — a city
  17. chair — a leader
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. bark — to shout
  20. face — part of the head
  21. face — to point toward
  22. saw — past of 'see'
  23. face — to confront
  24. capital — a big letter

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