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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 120 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: present · clip · mate · chair · sharp · hand · field · drill

  1. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  5. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Have you found your soul ________________?
  9. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  10. It's one o'clock ________________.
  11. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  12. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  15. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  23. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. present — a gift
  2. chair — a leader
  3. field — for sport
  4. drill — army training
  5. drill — the tool
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. clip — for paper
  8. mate — a partner
  9. mate — to breed
  10. sharp — exactly
  11. present — the time now
  12. hand — in cards
  13. clip — to cut
  14. sharp — clever
  15. mate — a friend
  16. clip — a video
  17. present — there
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. field — a subject
  20. field — farmland
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. drill — a practice
  23. sharp — with an edge
  24. hand — help

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