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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. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  2. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  5. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  8. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. perch — the fish
  3. cold — an illness
  4. cap — a hat
  5. cap — of ice
  6. field — a subject
  7. cap — a lid
  8. fall — to drop
  9. spring — of water
  10. spring — a coil
  11. cold — not warm
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. degree — from a university
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. row — to paddle
  16. fall — to drop
  17. field — for sport
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. degree — an amount
  20. row — a line
  21. spring — the season
  22. field — farmland
  23. degree — temperature
  24. fall — the season

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