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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 116 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: season · bark · staff · kid · mine · cold · squash · chair

  1. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  2. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  5. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  17. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. Did you ________________ the meat?
  22. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. staff — employees
  3. chair — a leader
  4. season — of the year
  5. chair — to sit on
  6. kid — child
  7. staff — employees
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. squash — the sport
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. chair — a professorship
  12. mine — for digging
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. squash — to crush
  16. season — in sport
  17. staff — a stick
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. cold — an illness
  20. kid — to tease
  21. season — to add flavour
  22. bark — to shout
  23. cold — not warm
  24. mine — an explosive

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