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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  3. My father caught me by the ________________.
  4. False peace will not ________________.
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  10. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  11. We're on a ________________ here.
  12. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  13. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. roll — a cake
  3. arm — part of the body
  4. last — to go on
  5. perch — the fish
  6. cold — an illness
  7. current — electric
  8. cold — not warm
  9. arm — a part of something
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. roll — on a roll
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. current — of water
  14. last — finally
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. current — happening now
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. roll — a list

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