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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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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 · cold · hand · perch · trunk · chest · pitch · present

  1. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  2. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  3. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  11. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  17. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  21. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  22. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  23. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sales talk
  2. pitch — a sports field
  3. perch — the fish
  4. cold — an illness
  5. chest — of your body
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. hand — in cards
  8. present — a gift
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. trunk — of an elephant
  11. present — there
  12. chair — a leader
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. cold — not warm
  15. chest — a box
  16. trunk — of a car
  17. present — the time now
  18. hand — help
  19. chest — of your body
  20. trunk — of a tree
  21. pitch — completely
  22. chair — a professorship
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. perch — for a bird

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