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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 116 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: chair · squash · cue · game · saw · degree · spell · hand

  1. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  9. She's very handy with a ________________.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  16. He works in a ________________ mill.
  17. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. chair — a leader
  3. hand — help
  4. hand — in cards
  5. spell — letters
  6. cue — a hint
  7. game — a match
  8. cue — a signal
  9. saw — the tool
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. spell — magic
  12. squash — the vegetable
  13. squash — to crush
  14. spell — a short time
  15. squash — the sport
  16. saw — the tool
  17. cue — for pool
  18. degree — an amount
  19. degree — from a university
  20. chair — to sit on
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. saw — past of 'see'
  23. degree — temperature
  24. game — wild animals

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