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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. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  2. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  3. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  4. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  10. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  11. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  12. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  13. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  14. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  20. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  21. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  22. The King held a masked ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — government
  2. ball — a great time
  3. branch — of a bank
  4. perch — the fish
  5. cold — an illness
  6. rule — a law
  7. cold — not warm
  8. game — wild animals
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. rule — to rule out
  11. lash — to lash out
  12. lash — a whip stroke
  13. trunk — of a tree
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. branch — a division
  20. ball — a round shape
  21. lash — an eyelash
  22. ball — a dance
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. game — a match

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