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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. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  3. It's one o'clock ________________.
  4. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  10. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  16. That must've been a ________________.
  17. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  18. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. track — a song
  3. sharp — exactly
  4. rush — to hurry
  5. chair — a leader
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. degree — an amount
  8. bat — the animal
  9. track — a path
  10. rush — hurry
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. capital — money
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. capital — a city
  15. sharp — clever
  16. rush — a thrill
  17. sharp — with an edge
  18. march — the month
  19. march — the month
  20. track — to keep track
  21. degree — from a university
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. degree — temperature
  24. march — music

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