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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  18. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. land — ground
  4. fork — to eat with
  5. last — to go on
  6. pound — to hit hard
  7. degree — from a university
  8. file — a tool
  9. file — a line of people
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. land — to come down
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. pound — a weight
  14. last — finally
  15. land — a country
  16. degree — temperature
  17. fork — a garden tool
  18. perch — the fish
  19. file — a document
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. last — final
  23. fork — in a road
  24. pound — for dogs

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