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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: chair · mark · straw · field · chest · race · hand · march

  1. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  2. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  17. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. race — the arms race
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. march — music
  4. chest — of your body
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. race — humankind
  7. field — for sport
  8. race — a contest
  9. chest — of your body
  10. chest — a box
  11. field — farmland
  12. mark — a grade
  13. hand — help
  14. march — the month
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. mark — a trace
  17. chair — a professorship
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. chair — a leader
  21. field — a subject
  22. mark — to pay attention
  23. hand — in cards
  24. march — the month

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