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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. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  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. row — to paddle
  2. capital — money
  3. row — a line
  4. band — a music group
  5. perch — the fish
  6. chest — of your body
  7. chest — of your body
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. game — a match
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. bass — the fish
  12. cold — an illness
  13. bass — the instrument
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. band — a ring
  17. bass — low music
  18. capital — a city
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. cold — not warm
  21. chest — a box
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. game — wild animals
  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