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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
468
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: hand · straw · cap · field · chair · track · cold · squash

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  4. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  13. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. track — to keep track
  4. cap — a hat
  5. field — farmland
  6. chair — a leader
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. squash — the vegetable
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. cap — of ice
  13. cap — a lid
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. field — for sport
  16. hand — in cards
  17. track — a song
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. cold — not warm
  20. squash — the sport
  21. cold — an illness
  22. squash — to crush
  23. field — a subject
  24. track — a path

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