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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. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. He is an ace ________________.
  10. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  18. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  21. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. My mare is ________________ in color.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. row — a line
  3. file — a tool
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. bay — a part of the sea
  6. clip — to cut
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. bat — the animal
  9. pitcher — in baseball
  10. chair — a leader
  11. clip — for paper
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. file — a document
  15. file — a line of people
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. date — the fruit
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. chair — a professorship
  21. bay — to keep at bay
  22. row — to paddle
  23. bay — a horse colour
  24. clip — a video

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