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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: swing · pitch · chest · chair · rash · mine · last · cold

  1. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. David sat on the ________________.
  15. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  16. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. Don't do anything ________________.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. cold — an illness
  4. pitch — a sales talk
  5. chest — of your body
  6. chair — a leader
  7. pitch — completely
  8. swing — in golf
  9. swing — music
  10. chest — of your body
  11. chest — a box
  12. rash — on the skin
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. swing — to play on
  15. rash — a series
  16. chair — to sit on
  17. last — finally
  18. pitch — a sports field
  19. last — final
  20. rash — hasty
  21. last — to go on
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. mine — for digging
  24. cold — not warm

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