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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 · bat · board · straw · firm · mate · kid · bass

  1. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  5. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  6. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  7. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  8. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. kid — to tease
  3. chair — a leader
  4. bass — the fish
  5. board — to get on
  6. firm — a company
  7. firm — decided
  8. firm — steady
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. board — a flat piece
  12. mate — to breed
  13. bass — low music
  14. kid — child
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. mate — a friend
  17. bat — the animal
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. board — a committee
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. bass — the instrument
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. bat — for baseball

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