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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  7. There's no middle ________________.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  11. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  12. David sat on the ________________.
  13. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  14. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  18. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  22. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. club — for golf
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. wind — moving air
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. ground — a position
  8. swing — in golf
  9. clip — to cut
  10. swing — music
  11. present — there
  12. swing — to play on
  13. present — the time now
  14. present — a gift
  15. shower — rain
  16. ground — the earth
  17. club — for dancing
  18. perch — the fish
  19. clip — for paper
  20. wind — moving air
  21. club — a group
  22. ground — crushed
  23. clip — a video
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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