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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. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. Did you ________________ the meat?
  14. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. rule — a law
  3. chair — a leader
  4. cue — a signal
  5. degree — temperature
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. spring — a coil
  8. season — in sport
  9. spring — of water
  10. rule — government
  11. row — a line
  12. spring — the season
  13. season — to add flavour
  14. season — of the year
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. cue — a hint
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. rule — to rule out
  19. row — to paddle
  20. bat — the animal
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. degree — an amount
  23. cue — for pool
  24. degree — from a university

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