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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. When are we going to ________________?
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  17. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. cold — an illness
  3. wax — for sculpting
  4. row — to paddle
  5. land — a country
  6. degree — temperature
  7. degree — an amount
  8. chair — to sit on
  9. cold — not warm
  10. last — finally
  11. perch — the fish
  12. last — to go on
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. row — a line
  16. wax — in the ear
  17. wax — to grow
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. land — ground
  20. last — final
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. degree — from a university
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. chair — a leader

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