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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. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  11. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  19. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  20. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  21. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. perch — the fish
  3. tear — from crying
  4. tear — from crying
  5. court — of law
  6. spell — letters
  7. court — of a king
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. wound — an injury
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. bore — gave birth
  12. wound — an injury
  13. court — for sport
  14. cold — an illness
  15. bore — to tire
  16. cold — not warm
  17. spell — magic
  18. chair — a leader
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. tear — to rip
  21. bore — to drill
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. spell — a short time

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