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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  3. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  4. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  5. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  10. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  13. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. rule — a law
  3. prune — the fruit
  4. perch — the fish
  5. deal — an agreement
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. deal — a big deal
  8. chest — of your body
  9. deal — to handle
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. capital — a city
  12. rule — government
  13. prune — to trim
  14. file — a document
  15. chest — a box
  16. capital — money
  17. prune — to trim
  18. cold — not warm
  19. chest — of your body
  20. rule — to rule out
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. file — a line of people
  23. file — a tool
  24. perch — for a bird

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