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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. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. I'll be taking the ________________.
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  15. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. court — of law
  3. game — wild animals
  4. tube — the underground
  5. tear — from crying
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. file — a tool
  8. lean — thin
  9. game — a match
  10. tube — a container
  11. file — a document
  12. perch — the fish
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. tube — in a tire
  15. lean — to bend
  16. tear — from crying
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. lean — to rest against
  19. tear — to rip
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. court — of a king
  22. snap — to click
  23. file — a line of people
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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