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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. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  2. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  3. We're almost out of ________________.
  4. You don't need to ________________ round.
  5. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  6. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  7. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  15. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  16. David sat on the ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  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. perch — for a bird
  2. perch — the fish
  3. pop — soda
  4. pop — to visit
  5. rock — music
  6. race — a contest
  7. rock — to move gently
  8. cold — not warm
  9. net — for catching
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. net — after costs
  12. clip — a video
  13. cold — an illness
  14. rock — a stone
  15. swing — music
  16. swing — to play on
  17. clip — for paper
  18. swing — in golf
  19. net — in sport
  20. pop — music
  21. clip — to cut
  22. race — the arms race
  23. race — humankind
  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