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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: plane · racket · file · bat · squash · fall · chair · cold

  1. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  9. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. The ________________ took off on time.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  22. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. He hit the ball with his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a tool
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. squash — to crush
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. fall — to drop
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. chair — to sit on
  9. plane — a tool
  10. file — a document
  11. plane — in geometry
  12. chair — a leader
  13. squash — the vegetable
  14. cold — not warm
  15. racket — for tennis
  16. squash — the sport
  17. plane — an aircraft
  18. file — a line of people
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. fall — to drop
  21. racket — a loud noise
  22. fall — the season
  23. bat — the animal
  24. racket — for tennis

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