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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  4. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. Have you found your soul ________________?
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. You don't need to ________________ round.
  14. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  17. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  19. When was this ________________ built?
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. We're almost out of ________________.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. shower — to wash
  3. temple — side of the head
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. cold — an illness
  6. pop — music
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. scale — size or range
  9. row — a line
  10. mate — a partner
  11. shower — rain
  12. scale — in music
  13. pop — to visit
  14. temple — a place of worship
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. perch — the fish
  17. mate — to breed
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. temple — a place of worship
  20. row — to paddle
  21. mate — a friend
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. pop — soda
  24. row — a quarrel

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