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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. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  2. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  3. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. We're on a ________________ here.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. Did you ________________ the meat?
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  19. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  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. perch — for a bird
  2. roll — a cake
  3. mark — to pay attention
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. shower — to wash
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. roll — on a roll
  8. spell — a short time
  9. season — to add flavour
  10. shower — rain
  11. season — in sport
  12. cold — an illness
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. season — of the year
  15. cold — not warm
  16. mark — a trace
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. roll — a list
  19. mark — a grade
  20. spell — letters
  21. perch — the fish
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. spell — magic
  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