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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. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  3. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  6. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  7. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  12. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  13. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. bore — to tire
  3. deal — an agreement
  4. last — final
  5. bore — gave birth
  6. perch — the fish
  7. sharp — with an edge
  8. row — a line
  9. cold — an illness
  10. row — to paddle
  11. bore — to drill
  12. sharp — clever
  13. deal — to handle
  14. last — to go on
  15. file — a tool
  16. cold — not warm
  17. file — a document
  18. deal — a big deal
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. file — a line of people
  22. row — a quarrel
  23. last — finally
  24. perch — for a bird

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