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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 116 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 birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. Don't do anything ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  16. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  17. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  18. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  23. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. mine — for digging
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. rash — hasty
  5. cell — a phone
  6. row — a line
  7. prune — to trim
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. cell — in biology
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. rash — a series
  14. degree — an amount
  15. bass — the instrument
  16. bass — low music
  17. bass — the fish
  18. prune — to trim
  19. degree — temperature
  20. row — to paddle
  21. degree — from a university
  22. rash — on the skin
  23. perch — the fish
  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