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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  8. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  18. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. We're on a ________________ here.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. march — the month
  3. drill — a practice
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. roll — a cake
  6. kid — child
  7. roll — a list
  8. fall — to drop
  9. drill — the tool
  10. game — a match
  11. fall — to drop
  12. march — the month
  13. drill — army training
  14. cell — a phone
  15. perch — the fish
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. fall — the season
  19. game — wild animals
  20. march — music
  21. roll — on a roll
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. cell — in biology
  24. perch — for a bird

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