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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 pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. David sat on the ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  8. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  13. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  14. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  21. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  22. He is an ace ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. swing — to play on
  3. clip — to cut
  4. clip — for paper
  5. fork — a garden tool
  6. swing — music
  7. bass — low music
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. game — a match
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. fork — to eat with
  15. bass — the fish
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. fork — in a road
  18. swing — in golf
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. bass — the instrument
  21. perch — the fish
  22. pitcher — in baseball
  23. clip — a video
  24. game — a kind of play

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