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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. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. Don't do anything ________________.
  7. We're almost out of ________________.
  8. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  14. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  20. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  21. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — the fish
  2. kid — to tease
  3. pop — to visit
  4. rash — on the skin
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. rash — hasty
  7. pop — soda
  8. race — humankind
  9. cap — of ice
  10. race — the arms race
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. bark — to shout
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. cap — a lid
  15. kid — child
  16. race — a contest
  17. bat — the animal
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. cap — a hat
  21. rash — a series
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. pop — music
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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