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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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Word bank
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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: shower · cap · chair · toast · bat · court · straw · staff

  1. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  2. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  3. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  7. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  21. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  22. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  23. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — a meteor shower
  2. toast — the most admired
  3. cap — of ice
  4. court — of law
  5. shower — to wash
  6. staff — employees
  7. staff — employees
  8. chair — a leader
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. staff — a stick
  11. bat — the animal
  12. court — for sport
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. shower — rain
  18. court — of a king
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. toast — a drink to someone
  21. cap — a hat
  22. cap — a lid
  23. toast — bread
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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