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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. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  2. That was a fun ________________.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  7. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  20. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — the earth
  2. game — a match
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. game — wild animals
  5. chair — a leader
  6. ground — crushed
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. hand — in cards
  10. hand — help
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. pit — a hole
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. ground — a position
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. pit — in a race
  20. pit — a fruit stone
  21. cold — an illness
  22. fan — to cool the air
  23. cold — not warm
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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