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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: game · bat · swing · content · chair · perch · fan · kid

  1. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  4. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  24. David sat on the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. kid — child
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. perch — the fish
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. swing — music
  7. game — wild animals
  8. chair — to sit on
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. swing — in golf
  11. content — the amount
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. fan — to cool the air
  16. kid — to tease
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. bat — the animal
  20. game — a match
  21. fan — a supporter
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. content — happy
  24. swing — to play on

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