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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: bat · chair · kid · last · ball · hand · bulb · roll

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  8. The light ________________ burned out.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. I've got to change the light ________________.
  16. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  17. The King held a masked ________________.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. We're on a ________________ here.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. hand — help
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. bulb — of a plant
  6. last — final
  7. chair — to sit on
  8. bulb — for light
  9. kid — to tease
  10. last — to go on
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. last — finally
  13. ball — a round shape
  14. chair — a leader
  15. bulb — for light
  16. roll — a cake
  17. ball — a dance
  18. bat — the animal
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. ball — a great time
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. roll — a list
  23. hand — in cards
  24. roll — on a roll

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