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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  7. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  8. We're almost out of ________________.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  14. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. The ________________ market has crashed.
  24. You don't need to ________________ round.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. perch — the fish
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. face — to confront
  7. stock — goods
  8. pop — soda
  9. shower — rain
  10. stock — a soup base
  11. bat — the animal
  12. cold — not warm
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. face — to point toward
  16. cold — an illness
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. shower — to wash
  21. pop — music
  22. face — part of the head
  23. stock — shares
  24. pop — to visit

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