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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. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  6. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. The ________________ market has crashed.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  21. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  22. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  23. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  24. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. perch — the fish
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. date — the fruit
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. land — a country
  11. stock — shares
  12. cold — an illness
  13. branch — of a tree
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. branch — a division
  16. cold — not warm
  17. firm — a company
  18. land — ground
  19. land — to come down
  20. firm — decided
  21. firm — steady
  22. stock — goods
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. date — on the calendar

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