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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 don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  2. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  5. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. How do you ________________ your surname?
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  22. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mouse — the animal
  2. mouse — for a computer
  3. degree — an amount
  4. mouse — the animal
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. race — the arms race
  7. cold — an illness
  8. race — a contest
  9. spell — a short time
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. scale — for weighing
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. spell — letters
  14. scale — size or range
  15. degree — temperature
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. degree — from a university
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. cold — not warm
  20. scale — in music
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. perch — the fish
  23. race — humankind
  24. spell — magic

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