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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: hand · last · kid · snap · chair · toast · field · shower

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  8. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  17. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  18. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. kid — child
  3. shower — to wash
  4. last — finally
  5. chair — a leader
  6. last — to go on
  7. toast — the most admired
  8. snap — to click
  9. hand — in cards
  10. field — a subject
  11. field — farmland
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. hand — help
  16. last — final
  17. snap — to speak sharply
  18. toast — bread
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. field — for sport
  22. shower — rain
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. toast — a drink to someone

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