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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: chair · staff · squash · press · kid · mark · field · wind

  1. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  2. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  14. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  15. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. Did you ________________ the button?
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  21. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — to pay attention
  2. press — a publisher
  3. field — farmland
  4. staff — a stick
  5. kid — to tease
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. staff — employees
  8. squash — the sport
  9. field — for sport
  10. wind — moving air
  11. mark — a grade
  12. chair — a leader
  13. squash — the vegetable
  14. squash — to crush
  15. mark — a trace
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. press — to push
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. kid — child
  20. press — newspapers
  21. staff — employees
  22. wind — moving air
  23. field — a subject
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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