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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: march · chair · press · chip · fork · snap · chest · clip

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. Did you ________________ the button?
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  19. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. march — music
  3. chair — a leader
  4. press — a publisher
  5. clip — for paper
  6. chip — to eat
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. chest — a box
  9. snap — to click
  10. clip — to cut
  11. chest — of your body
  12. press — to push
  13. fork — in a road
  14. chip — in a computer
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. fork — to eat with
  17. chest — of your body
  18. press — newspapers
  19. snap — to speak sharply
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. chair — a professorship
  22. clip — a video
  23. chip — for betting
  24. march — the month

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