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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. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  3. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  14. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  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. net — after costs
  2. net — in sport
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. prune — to trim
  5. bark — to shout
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. scale — in music
  8. chest — a box
  9. perch — the fish
  10. prune — to trim
  11. chest — of your body
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. patient — calm and waiting
  15. net — for catching
  16. hand — in cards
  17. scale — size or range
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. chest — of your body
  20. hand — help
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. prune — the fruit
  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