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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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. We're almost out of ________________.
  4. The ________________ took off on time.
  5. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. You don't need to ________________ round.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. chair — a leader
  3. pop — soda
  4. plane — an aircraft
  5. pop — music
  6. clip — for paper
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. plane — a tool
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. scale — in music
  12. row — a line
  13. scale — for weighing
  14. clip — to cut
  15. snap — to click
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. row — to paddle
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. pop — to visit
  21. scale — size or range
  22. clip — a video
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. plane — in geometry

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