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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. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  3. Did you ________________ the meat?
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  8. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  9. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. I would like to have a ________________ here.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. lean — to bend
  3. season — to add flavour
  4. chair — a leader
  5. bat — the animal
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. lean — thin
  8. lean — to rest against
  9. season — of the year
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. cold — not warm
  13. season — in sport
  14. cold — an illness
  15. game — wild animals
  16. rest — what's left
  17. spring — the season
  18. rest — what's left
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. game — a match
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. spring — a coil
  23. spring — of water
  24. rest — a break

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