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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. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  8. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  11. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  12. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  13. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. He is an ace ________________.
  21. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — government
  2. court — of a king
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. court — for sport
  5. wind — moving air
  6. wind — moving air
  7. root — of a plant
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. wound — an injury
  10. root — of a word
  11. rule — to rule out
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. root — the cause
  14. perch — the fish
  15. rule — a law
  16. wound — an injury
  17. court — of law
  18. hand — help
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. pitcher — in baseball
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. hand — in cards

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