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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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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 · stick · fork · straw · hand · rest · court · prune

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  4. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  5. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  6. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  7. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  14. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  15. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  16. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  17. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  18. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. prune — to trim
  3. fork — a garden tool
  4. rest — a break
  5. chair — to sit on
  6. stick — to attach or keep to
  7. stick — a piece of wood
  8. hand — in cards
  9. court — for sport
  10. court — of a king
  11. prune — the fruit
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. fork — to eat with
  14. stick — a piece of wood
  15. fork — in a road
  16. chair — a leader
  17. rest — what's left
  18. chair — a professorship
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. prune — to trim
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. court — of law
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. rest — what's left

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