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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  10. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  11. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  14. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  15. He is an ace ________________.
  16. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. tear — from crying
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. prune — to trim
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. lean — to bend
  10. perch — the fish
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. prune — to trim
  14. lean — to rest against
  15. pitcher — in baseball
  16. lean — thin
  17. game — wild animals
  18. tear — to rip
  19. tear — from crying
  20. bat — the animal
  21. kid — child
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. game — a match
  24. perch — for a bird

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