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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 120 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. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. The ball is in your ________________.
  8. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  9. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  13. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. present — there
  2. cold — not warm
  3. perch — the fish
  4. court — of law
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. file — a line of people
  7. court — for sport
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. object — to protest
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. cold — an illness
  12. object — an aim
  13. band — a rubber band
  14. file — a document
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. file — a tool
  17. band — a music group
  18. present — the time now
  19. bat — the animal
  20. present — a gift
  21. court — of a king
  22. object — a thing
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. band — a ring

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