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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 birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  6. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  10. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  16. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  20. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. row — a line
  3. bass — low music
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. bass — the instrument
  7. field — a subject
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. bass — the fish
  10. perch — the fish
  11. field — farmland
  12. root — of a word
  13. mine — for digging
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. root — the cause
  16. root — of a plant
  17. row — to paddle
  18. field — for sport
  19. mouse — the animal
  20. mouse — the animal
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. mouse — for a computer
  23. cold — not warm
  24. cold — an illness

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