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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. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  4. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  5. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  6. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  10. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  11. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  15. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  16. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. I'll be taking the ________________.
  24. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. club — for golf
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. perch — the fish
  5. track — a song
  6. club — for dancing
  7. cold — not warm
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. tube — in a tire
  10. hide — animal skin
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. bat — the animal
  13. cold — an illness
  14. track — to keep track
  15. club — a group
  16. tube — a container
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. row — a line
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. row — to paddle
  23. tube — the underground
  24. track — a path

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