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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 120 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. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  2. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  7. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  8. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  9. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  14. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  15. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — in cards
  2. swing — music
  3. swing — to play on
  4. wound — an injury
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. bowl — to roll
  7. march — music
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. bowl — a dish
  10. hand — help
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. bowl — a football final
  15. perch — the fish
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. wound — an injury
  18. clip — for paper
  19. swing — in golf
  20. march — the month
  21. march — the month
  22. clip — to cut
  23. clip — a video
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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