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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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Word bank
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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 water is too ________________.
  2. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  8. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  9. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  17. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  20. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  21. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. Can you turn the ________________ on?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. rest — a break
  3. land — a country
  4. capital — money
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. kick — a thrill
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. perch — the fish
  10. cold — an illness
  11. land — to come down
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. capital — a city
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. rest — what's left
  17. fan — a supporter
  18. row — to paddle
  19. kick — in football
  20. rest — what's left
  21. kick — with a leg
  22. row — a line
  23. land — ground
  24. fan — to cool the air

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