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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: ground · chair · race · hand · band · wax · board · pitcher

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  5. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  6. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  7. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  8. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  9. He is an ace ________________.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  15. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  16. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  17. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  18. There's no middle ________________.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  24. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. ground — crushed
  3. chair — a leader
  4. ground — the earth
  5. board — a committee
  6. hand — in cards
  7. wax — for sculpting
  8. wax — to grow
  9. pitcher — in baseball
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. band — a music group
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. race — a contest
  14. wax — in the ear
  15. board — to get on
  16. band — a rubber band
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. ground — a position
  19. band — a ring
  20. race — the arms race
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. race — humankind
  23. board — a flat piece
  24. chair — a professorship

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