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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  5. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. I've got to change the light ________________.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. Did you ________________ the button?
  22. The light ________________ burned out.
  23. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  24. That was ________________ to happen.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — the fish
  2. chest — of your body
  3. bat — the animal
  4. press — newspapers
  5. bound — obliged
  6. field — a subject
  7. field — farmland
  8. bulb — for light
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. chest — a box
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. hand — in cards
  14. field — for sport
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. bound — tied together
  17. chest — of your body
  18. press — a publisher
  19. hand — help
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. press — to push
  22. bulb — for light
  23. bulb — of a plant
  24. bound — certain

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