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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 chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  6. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  11. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  14. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  15. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. row — to paddle
  3. swing — to play on
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. swing — music
  6. perch — the fish
  7. shower — to wash
  8. clip — a video
  9. clip — to cut
  10. fork — a garden tool
  11. fork — in a road
  12. clip — for paper
  13. cap — a lid
  14. cap — of ice
  15. fork — to eat with
  16. kid — to tease
  17. shower — rain
  18. swing — in golf
  19. row — a line
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. cap — a hat
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. perch — for a bird

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