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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.

Words on the sheet
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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 · bark · rock · tube · jam · bat · chest · mine

  1. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  15. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  18. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. rock — music
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. jam — to spread on bread
  5. chest — of your body
  6. chest — of your body
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. tube — in a tire
  9. tube — the underground
  10. tube — a container
  11. jam — a tight spot
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. chest — a box
  14. jam — in traffic
  15. bark — of a tree
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. rock — to move gently
  18. rock — a stone
  19. bark — to shout
  20. bat — the animal
  21. chair — a professorship
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. mine — for digging

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