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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: swing · wax · chair · tube · straw · pitcher · bore · rush

  1. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. He is an ace ________________.
  9. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  10. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  11. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  12. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  13. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  14. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  15. I'll be taking the ________________.
  16. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  17. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. That must've been a ________________.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. rush — hurry
  3. swing — to play on
  4. tube — a container
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. pitcher — in baseball
  9. wax — to grow
  10. rush — to hurry
  11. swing — in golf
  12. bore — to drill
  13. bore — to tire
  14. bore — gave birth
  15. tube — the underground
  16. chair — to sit on
  17. wax — for sculpting
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. swing — music
  22. rush — a thrill
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. pitcher — a jug

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