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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 120 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 would like to have a ________________ here.
  2. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  24. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — a break
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. land — ground
  4. perch — the fish
  5. degree — an amount
  6. file — a tool
  7. degree — from a university
  8. tear — to rip
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. degree — temperature
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. file — a document
  14. tear — from crying
  15. branch — a division
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. branch — of a tree
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. land — to come down
  20. file — a line of people
  21. tear — from crying
  22. land — a country
  23. rest — what's left
  24. rest — what's left

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