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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. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  5. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  6. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  7. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  13. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  16. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  17. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  18. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  19. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  24. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.

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

Answer key

  1. pass — to succeed
  2. game — wild animals
  3. chest — of your body
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. dip — to sink
  8. chest — of your body
  9. cold — not warm
  10. chest — a box
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. dip — a sauce
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. pass — a permit
  16. pass — to spend time
  17. pitch — a sales talk
  18. fan — to cool the air
  19. pitch — completely
  20. game — a match
  21. pitch — a sports field
  22. cold — an illness
  23. perch — the fish
  24. dip — to dunk

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