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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. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. That must've been a ________________.
  5. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  15. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. perch — the fish
  3. wound — an injury
  4. rush — a thrill
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. land — to come down
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. land — ground
  9. wound — an injury
  10. rush — to hurry
  11. chest — a box
  12. band — a music group
  13. chest — of your body
  14. object — to protest
  15. band — a rubber band
  16. chest — of your body
  17. object — a thing
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. file — a line of people
  20. band — a ring
  21. object — an aim
  22. file — a tool
  23. land — a country
  24. file — a document

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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