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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. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  5. That was ________________ to happen.
  6. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  9. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  10. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  11. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. How do you ________________ your surname?
  17. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  18. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. The ball is in your ________________.
  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. spell — magic
  2. degree — an amount
  3. cold — not warm
  4. leaves — to go away
  5. bound — certain
  6. bound — obliged
  7. shower — to wash
  8. leaves — of a tree
  9. leaves — lets stay
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. spell — a short time
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. degree — from a university
  14. degree — temperature
  15. court — of law
  16. spell — letters
  17. bound — tied together
  18. perch — the fish
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. cold — an illness
  21. court — of a king
  22. shower — rain
  23. court — for sport
  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