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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: stock · perch · chair · racket · last · kid · bat · clip

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  5. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  6. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  19. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. stock — shares
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. racket — a loud noise
  5. stock — a soup base
  6. perch — the fish
  7. bat — the animal
  8. racket — for tennis
  9. clip — for paper
  10. clip — a video
  11. racket — for tennis
  12. chair — a leader
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. last — to go on
  15. last — finally
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. stock — goods
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. last — final
  22. clip — to cut
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. kid — to tease

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