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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: key · chair · branch · field · chest · bass · club · cold

  1. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  4. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  9. This piece is in a major ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  12. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  16. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  17. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  18. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  19. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. chest — of your body
  3. branch — a division
  4. chair — to sit on
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. chest — of your body
  7. chair — a leader
  8. club — for golf
  9. key — in music
  10. cold — not warm
  11. key — for a lock
  12. club — a group
  13. cold — an illness
  14. field — a subject
  15. branch — of a bank
  16. club — for dancing
  17. key — the most important part
  18. bass — low music
  19. bass — the instrument
  20. field — for sport
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. chest — a box
  23. bass — the fish
  24. field — farmland

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