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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: hand · cabinet · straw · rest · chair · row · bark · mine

  1. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  10. What do you think of the new ________________?
  11. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cabinet — a cupboard
  2. hand — help
  3. mine — for digging
  4. bark — of a tree
  5. bark — to shout
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. cabinet — ministers
  10. cabinet — ministers
  11. rest — what's left
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. rest — what's left
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. chair — a leader
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. rest — a break
  22. row — a line
  23. row — to paddle
  24. hand — in cards

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