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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. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  2. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  3. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  4. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  12. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  13. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a lid
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. pitch — a sales talk
  4. branch — of a tree
  5. game — a match
  6. branch — a division
  7. shower — to wash
  8. court — of a king
  9. clip — to cut
  10. shower — rain
  11. cap — a hat
  12. pitch — a sports field
  13. branch — of a bank
  14. perch — the fish
  15. cap — of ice
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. court — for sport
  19. pitch — completely
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. clip — a video
  22. game — wild animals
  23. clip — for paper
  24. court — of law

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