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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 owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  2. David sat on the ________________.
  3. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  11. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. I assure you, everything's ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. swing — to play on
  3. fine — a penalty
  4. field — for sport
  5. mine — for digging
  6. perch — the fish
  7. field — a subject
  8. swing — in golf
  9. chest — of your body
  10. bowl — to roll
  11. bowl — a dish
  12. chest — a box
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. cold — an illness
  15. field — farmland
  16. bowl — a football final
  17. chest — of your body
  18. swing — music
  19. fine — high quality
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. cold — not warm
  24. fine — all right

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