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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 120 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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  6. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  7. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  16. The ________________ went through the wall.
  17. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  18. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. march — music
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. fork — a garden tool
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. cold — not warm
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. court — for sport
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. court — of a king
  14. march — the month
  15. perch — the fish
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. net — after costs
  18. nail — on a finger
  19. mine — for digging
  20. net — in sport
  21. net — for catching
  22. march — the month
  23. fork — in a road
  24. court — of law

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