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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. We're on a ________________ here.
  13. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  14. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  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. cold — the Cold War
  2. roll — a list
  3. game — wild animals
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. perch — the fish
  6. face — to point toward
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. game — a match
  9. drill — a practice
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. roll — on a roll
  13. bark — to shout
  14. drill — the tool
  15. cold — not warm
  16. bark — of a tree
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. roll — a cake
  20. drill — army training
  21. cold — an illness
  22. face — to confront
  23. face — part of the head
  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