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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. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  7. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. He is an ace ________________.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. kid — to tease
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. club — for golf
  8. chair — a leader
  9. land — a country
  10. bat — the animal
  11. land — to come down
  12. squash — the vegetable
  13. club — a group
  14. kid — child
  15. squash — the sport
  16. land — ground
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. squash — to crush
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. pitcher — in baseball
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. bat — for baseball

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