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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 ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  5. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  15. I'll be taking the ________________.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  20. There's no middle ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  24. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — the earth
  2. ground — crushed
  3. degree — an amount
  4. can — a tin
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. game — wild animals
  7. land — ground
  8. cold — not warm
  9. tube — in a tire
  10. cold — an illness
  11. tube — a container
  12. land — to come down
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. tube — the underground
  16. game — a match
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. degree — from a university
  19. can — a tin
  20. ground — a position
  21. degree — temperature
  22. land — a country
  23. can — to be able to
  24. perch — the fish

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