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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 120 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. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  3. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  6. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. How do you ________________ your surname?
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. Don't do anything ________________.
  16. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. She's very handy with a ________________.
  21. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. scale — for weighing
  3. rash — on the skin
  4. court — for sport
  5. saw — past of 'see'
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. court — of law
  9. perch — the fish
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. cold — not warm
  13. spell — letters
  14. court — of a king
  15. rash — hasty
  16. rash — a series
  17. saw — the tool
  18. spell — a short time
  19. scale — size or range
  20. saw — the tool
  21. scale — in music
  22. mine — for digging
  23. cold — an illness
  24. spell — magic

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