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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 ball is in your ________________.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  17. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. spring — the season
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. row — a line
  6. spring — a coil
  7. cold — not warm
  8. court — of a king
  9. stick — a piece of wood
  10. spring — of water
  11. degree — an amount
  12. stick — a piece of wood
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. degree — temperature
  16. stick — to attach or keep to
  17. perch — the fish
  18. court — of law
  19. cold — an illness
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. degree — from a university
  22. row — to paddle
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. cold — the Cold War

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