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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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. He was locked up in a ________________.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  18. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  19. Have you found your soul ________________?
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  24. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. degree — an amount
  3. cell — in a prison
  4. degree — from a university
  5. prune — to trim
  6. tear — from crying
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. row — a line
  10. tear — to rip
  11. degree — temperature
  12. row — to paddle
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. mate — a friend
  15. prune — to trim
  16. last — to go on
  17. mate — to breed
  18. cell — a phone
  19. mate — a partner
  20. tear — from crying
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. cell — in biology
  23. last — final
  24. perch — the fish

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