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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: saw · hand · pound · file · land · chair · stock · rest

  1. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  10. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  14. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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. stock — a soup base
  4. land — ground
  5. pound — to hit hard
  6. file — a document
  7. land — a country
  8. hand — help
  9. rest — what's left
  10. rest — a break
  11. saw — the tool
  12. stock — shares
  13. pound — a weight
  14. rest — what's left
  15. land — to come down
  16. stock — goods
  17. hand — in cards
  18. pound — for dogs
  19. file — a line of people
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. saw — past of 'see'
  23. saw — the tool
  24. file — a tool

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