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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. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  8. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  13. This piece is in a major ________________.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  17. How do you ________________ your surname?
  18. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a lid
  2. wound — an injury
  3. chair — a leader
  4. hand — help
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. field — for sport
  7. spell — magic
  8. key — for a lock
  9. field — farmland
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. field — a subject
  12. key — the most important part
  13. key — in music
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. cold — not warm
  16. chair — to sit on
  17. spell — letters
  18. cap — a hat
  19. hand — in cards
  20. cap — of ice
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. wound — an injury
  23. cold — an illness
  24. spell — a short time

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