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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. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. The King held a masked ________________.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  6. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  9. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  15. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. False peace will not ________________.
  23. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. ball — a dance
  4. last — final
  5. bark — a dog's sound
  6. face — to confront
  7. kid — child
  8. bark — to shout
  9. ball — a great time
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. face — to point toward
  12. chair — a leader
  13. march — the month
  14. bark — of a tree
  15. ball — a round shape
  16. bat — the animal
  17. march — music
  18. march — the month
  19. kid — to tease
  20. last — finally
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. last — to go on
  23. chair — to sit on
  24. face — part of the head

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