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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  6. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  7. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  16. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  17. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  18. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  19. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. The ball is in your ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. present — a gift
  3. court — of a king
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. present — there
  7. fork — to eat with
  8. race — a contest
  9. staff — employees
  10. shower — rain
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. court — of law
  13. fork — a garden tool
  14. perch — the fish
  15. staff — a stick
  16. staff — employees
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. present — the time now
  19. fork — in a road
  20. cold — not warm
  21. cold — an illness
  22. race — the arms race
  23. race — humankind
  24. court — for sport

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