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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 office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  3. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  4. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  7. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  10. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  14. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  15. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. Have you settled on a ________________?
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  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. cold — not warm
  2. staff — employees
  3. date — on the calendar
  4. foot — a measure
  5. prune — to trim
  6. prune — to trim
  7. staff — a stick
  8. game — wild animals
  9. perch — the fish
  10. foot — the bottom
  11. cold — an illness
  12. game — a match
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. date — the fruit
  15. staff — employees
  16. degree — from a university
  17. foot — part of the body
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. degree — temperature
  21. degree — an amount
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. cold — the Cold War
  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