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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 is an ace ________________.
  2. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  3. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — in baseball
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. lean — to bend
  4. land — a country
  5. land — ground
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. row — to paddle
  8. lean — thin
  9. land — to come down
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. file — a line of people
  12. row — a line
  13. capital — money
  14. perch — the fish
  15. wind — moving air
  16. file — a tool
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. lean — to rest against
  20. file — a document
  21. wind — moving air
  22. row — a quarrel
  23. capital — a city
  24. wind — to turn a key

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