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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: chest · bore · fall · capital · bat · cell · chair · club

  1. He was locked up in a ________________.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  9. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  17. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  21. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  22. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  23. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — in a prison
  2. capital — money
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. chair — a leader
  5. fall — to drop
  6. bore — to tire
  7. chest — a box
  8. bore — to drill
  9. club — for dancing
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. club — for golf
  12. chest — of your body
  13. capital — a city
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. cell — in biology
  16. fall — to drop
  17. club — a group
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. chest — of your body
  20. fall — the season
  21. chair — a professorship
  22. cell — a phone
  23. bore — gave birth
  24. bat — the animal

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