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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 120 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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  16. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  17. Did you ________________ the meat?
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. chest — of your body
  3. prune — to trim
  4. kid — child
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. last — final
  7. last — to go on
  8. chest — of your body
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. prune — to trim
  11. chest — a box
  12. track — a song
  13. band — a music group
  14. chair — a leader
  15. season — in sport
  16. season — of the year
  17. season — to add flavour
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. track — a path
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. track — to keep track
  23. last — finally
  24. band — a ring

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