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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  11. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. There's no middle ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. cold — an illness
  3. board — to get on
  4. clip — a video
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. board — a committee
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. dip — to sink
  9. ground — the earth
  10. board — a flat piece
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. field — a subject
  13. clip — for paper
  14. ground — a position
  15. cold — not warm
  16. dip — to dunk
  17. clip — to cut
  18. mine — for digging
  19. ground — crushed
  20. perch — the fish
  21. field — farmland
  22. dip — a sauce
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. field — for sport

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