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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: field · chest · chair · cap · lie · bat · wound · perch

  1. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  3. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  4. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  16. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  17. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. cap — of ice
  3. lie — an untruth
  4. lie — to recline
  5. wound — an injury
  6. field — farmland
  7. field — for sport
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. lie — an untruth
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. chair — a leader
  12. chest — a box
  13. chest — of your body
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. cap — a lid
  16. chair — to sit on
  17. cap — a hat
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. bat — the animal
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. wound — an injury
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. field — a subject
  24. perch — the fish

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