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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  6. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The tickets are free of ________________.
  19. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  20. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. capital — a city
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. mouse — the animal
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. wound — an injury
  8. charge — electricity
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. wound — an injury
  11. mouse — for a computer
  12. cold — an illness
  13. bat — the animal
  14. charge — in control
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. capital — money
  17. cold — not warm
  18. charge — a price
  19. perch — the fish
  20. mouse — the animal
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. hand — in cards

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