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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cell · bat · chair · tear · straw · lash

  1. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  2. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. He was locked up in a ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  7. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — a phone
  2. chair — to sit on
  3. bat — the animal
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. cell — in a prison
  6. lash — to lash out
  7. lash — a whip stroke
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. tear — from crying
  10. lash — an eyelash
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. tear — to rip
  13. cell — in biology
  14. tear — from crying
  15. chair — a leader
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. straw — dry grass

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