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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  5. There's no middle ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  17. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  21. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  22. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. march — the month
  4. wax — for sculpting
  5. ground — a position
  6. field — a subject
  7. chair — a leader
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. ground — the earth
  10. field — for sport
  11. bore — gave birth
  12. kid — child
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. bore — to tire
  15. march — the month
  16. wax — to grow
  17. wax — in the ear
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. march — music
  20. chair — to sit on
  21. ground — crushed
  22. bore — to drill
  23. field — farmland
  24. straw — a straw man

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