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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 water is too ________________.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  4. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  14. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. We're on a ________________ here.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. chest — a box
  3. rest — a break
  4. net — after costs
  5. net — for catching
  6. roll — a list
  7. spring — the season
  8. spring — a coil
  9. spring — of water
  10. perch — the fish
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. march — the month
  13. rest — what's left
  14. march — music
  15. chest — of your body
  16. roll — on a roll
  17. march — the month
  18. rest — what's left
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. roll — a cake
  21. chest — of your body
  22. net — in sport
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. cold — an illness

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