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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 birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  4. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  5. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  9. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  15. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. Have you found your soul ________________?
  18. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. That must've been a ________________.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. chest — of your body
  3. rush — hurry
  4. mate — a friend
  5. pound — to hit hard
  6. chest — a box
  7. scale — in music
  8. pound — for dogs
  9. rush — to hurry
  10. chest — of your body
  11. wound — an injury
  12. pound — a weight
  13. wound — an injury
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. mate — to breed
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. mate — a partner
  18. scale — for weighing
  19. row — to paddle
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. rush — a thrill
  22. row — a line
  23. perch — the fish
  24. scale — size or range

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