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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 116 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 · kid · land · coach · wake · press · race · field

  1. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. Have you met the new head ________________?
  10. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  11. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  12. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Did you ________________ the button?
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  18. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  19. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  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. chair — a leader
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. field — a subject
  4. kid — to tease
  5. field — farmland
  6. race — the arms race
  7. land — a country
  8. land — to come down
  9. coach — a trainer
  10. coach — pulled by horses
  11. race — a contest
  12. press — a publisher
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. field — for sport
  15. press — to push
  16. race — humankind
  17. wake — to stop sleeping
  18. wake — before a funeral
  19. press — newspapers
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. land — ground
  22. wake — a trail
  23. kid — child
  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