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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's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  3. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  12. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  18. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  22. The ________________ took off on time.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. perch — the fish
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. capital — money
  5. race — humankind
  6. capital — a city
  7. cell — a phone
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. race — the arms race
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. club — for golf
  12. plane — in geometry
  13. club — a group
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. plane — a tool
  18. club — for dancing
  19. shower — rain
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. race — a contest
  22. plane — an aircraft
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. cell — in biology

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