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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 · straw · mine · march · swing · bark · pitch · pound

  1. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  8. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. David sat on the ________________.
  11. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  16. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  22. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  23. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  24. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. mine — for digging
  3. march — the month
  4. chair — a leader
  5. bark — a dog's sound
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. swing — music
  8. pitch — a sports field
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. swing — to play on
  11. swing — in golf
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. march — music
  14. march — the month
  15. pitch — completely
  16. pound — for dogs
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. pound — to hit hard
  22. pitch — a sales talk
  23. pound — a weight
  24. bark — to shout

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