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

Word bank: game · squash · drill · chair · prune · last

  1. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  10. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  11. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  12. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  13. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  14. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. False peace will not ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. game — wild animals
  3. last — finally
  4. prune — to trim
  5. game — a match
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. squash — to crush
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. last — final
  10. chair — a leader
  11. prune — the fruit
  12. drill — army training
  13. drill — the tool
  14. squash — the sport
  15. drill — a practice
  16. squash — the vegetable
  17. prune — to trim
  18. last — to go on

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