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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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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: chair · rush · pitcher · court · chest · clip · lean · march

  1. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  6. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  18. That must've been a ________________.
  19. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. The ball is in your ________________.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. court — of a king
  3. lean — to bend
  4. chair — a leader
  5. rush — hurry
  6. lean — thin
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. march — the month
  9. clip — for paper
  10. chest — of your body
  11. chest — of your body
  12. clip — to cut
  13. lean — to rest against
  14. court — of law
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. chest — a box
  17. chair — a professorship
  18. rush — a thrill
  19. rush — to hurry
  20. clip — a video
  21. court — for sport
  22. march — the month
  23. march — music
  24. pitcher — a jug

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