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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 116 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. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  2. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  10. That must've been a ________________.
  11. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  15. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. perch — the fish
  3. wind — moving air
  4. cold — not warm
  5. field — farmland
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. cold — an illness
  8. shower — to wash
  9. rush — to hurry
  10. rush — a thrill
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. field — a subject
  13. field — for sport
  14. rush — hurry
  15. branch — a division
  16. band — a music group
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. branch — of a tree
  19. wind — moving air
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. branch — of a bank
  23. shower — rain
  24. band — a ring

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