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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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  11. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  16. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  20. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. land — ground
  3. clip — for paper
  4. court — of law
  5. court — for sport
  6. pitch — a sales talk
  7. clip — a video
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. perch — the fish
  11. net — in sport
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. clip — to cut
  14. land — to come down
  15. chair — a leader
  16. pitch — a sports field
  17. court — of a king
  18. row — to paddle
  19. pitch — completely
  20. net — for catching
  21. net — after costs
  22. row — a quarrel
  23. row — a line
  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