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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. David sat on the ________________.
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. The ________________ took off on time.
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — to play on
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. club — for dancing
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. swing — music
  7. spring — a coil
  8. swing — in golf
  9. club — for golf
  10. wound — an injury
  11. spring — the season
  12. spring — of water
  13. cold — not warm
  14. hand — in cards
  15. plane — an aircraft
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. hand — help
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. plane — a tool
  20. cold — an illness
  21. perch — the fish
  22. wound — an injury
  23. plane — in geometry
  24. club — a group

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