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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. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  2. There's no middle ________________.
  3. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  4. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  7. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  14. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  17. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  18. He is an ace ________________.
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. He's taking a ________________ right now.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — the fish
  2. ground — a position
  3. bear — the animal
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. capital — money
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. root — of a plant
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. court — for sport
  10. ground — crushed
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. root — of a word
  14. bear — the animal
  15. ground — the earth
  16. root — the cause
  17. bear — to put up with
  18. pitcher — in baseball
  19. court — of a king
  20. capital — a city
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. court — of law
  23. shower — rain
  24. shower — to wash

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