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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. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. The train ________________ at six o'clock.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. kid — child
  4. mine — for digging
  5. prune — to trim
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. perch — the fish
  8. capital — money
  9. march — the month
  10. prune — the fruit
  11. prune — to trim
  12. leaves — lets stay
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. capital — a city
  16. kid — to tease
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. leaves — of a tree
  20. cold — not warm
  21. march — music
  22. cold — an illness
  23. march — the month
  24. leaves — to go away

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