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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. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. David sat on the ________________.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  10. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  15. That was ________________ to happen.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cue — a signal
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. bound — obliged
  4. field — a subject
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. swing — music
  7. swing — to play on
  8. swing — in golf
  9. cue — a hint
  10. chair — a leader
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. cold — an illness
  14. cue — for pool
  15. bound — certain
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. field — for sport
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. bound — tied together
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. bat — the animal
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. cold — not warm
  24. field — farmland

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