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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. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  2. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. We're on a ________________ here.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. David sat on the ________________.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  19. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  20. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  24. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. roll — a cake
  3. drill — army training
  4. roll — a list
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. file — a tool
  7. file — a line of people
  8. roll — on a roll
  9. degree — an amount
  10. drill — a practice
  11. drill — the tool
  12. chip — in a computer
  13. game — wild animals
  14. swing — to play on
  15. game — a match
  16. degree — temperature
  17. file — a document
  18. chip — to eat
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. chip — for betting
  21. swing — music
  22. degree — from a university
  23. perch — the fish
  24. swing — in golf

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