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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. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  3. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  4. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. David sat on the ________________.
  9. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  12. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  13. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  14. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  15. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  24. I play ________________ in a jazz band.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. bark — a dog's sound
  3. bark — to shout
  4. face — to confront
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. bass — the fish
  8. swing — to play on
  9. bass — low music
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. chair — a professorship
  12. fall — to drop
  13. fall — to drop
  14. face — to point toward
  15. swing — music
  16. face — part of the head
  17. fall — the season
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. drill — army training
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. swing — in golf
  22. drill — the tool
  23. drill — a practice
  24. bass — the instrument

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