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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. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  2. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  3. Have you met the new head ________________?
  4. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  5. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  6. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  10. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  11. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  12. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  13. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  17. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  18. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. board — a flat piece
  2. coach — pulled by horses
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. board — a committee
  5. board — to get on
  6. squash — to crush
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. land — to come down
  9. calf — a young animal
  10. squash — the vegetable
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. calf — of the leg
  13. squash — the sport
  14. cold — an illness
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. calf — a young animal
  17. perch — the fish
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. land — ground
  21. bat — the animal
  22. cold — not warm
  23. land — a country
  24. bat — for baseball

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