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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. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  2. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  3. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  13. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  14. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  19. She's very handy with a ________________.
  20. He works in a ________________ mill.
  21. Have you settled on a ________________?
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  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 — the fish
  2. bowl — to roll
  3. date — the fruit
  4. chest — of your body
  5. cold — an illness
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. game — a match
  8. row — a line
  9. cold — not warm
  10. row — to paddle
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. bowl — a dish
  15. chest — a box
  16. game — wild animals
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. saw — past of 'see'
  19. saw — the tool
  20. saw — the tool
  21. date — on the calendar
  22. chest — of your body
  23. bowl — a football final
  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