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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. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  9. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  15. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  18. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  19. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  20. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  23. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. mine — for digging
  3. chair — a leader
  4. field — a subject
  5. bass — low music
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. chest — of your body
  8. squash — the vegetable
  9. pit — a fruit stone
  10. wax — to grow
  11. bass — the fish
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. chest — a box
  14. pit — a hole
  15. pit — in a race
  16. field — for sport
  17. chair — a professorship
  18. squash — to crush
  19. bass — the instrument
  20. chair — to sit on
  21. field — farmland
  22. squash — the sport
  23. wax — in the ear
  24. chest — of your body

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