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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 ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  19. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  20. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. ground — crushed
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. perch — the fish
  6. dip — to dunk
  7. field — for sport
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. field — a subject
  10. spring — of water
  11. dip — to sink
  12. squash — to crush
  13. ground — a position
  14. field — farmland
  15. spring — the season
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. tear — from crying
  18. dip — a sauce
  19. squash — the vegetable
  20. squash — the sport
  21. spring — a coil
  22. tear — from crying
  23. ground — the earth
  24. tear — to rip

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