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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 ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  3. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  4. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. fork — a garden tool
  4. drill — army training
  5. spring — the season
  6. spring — a coil
  7. clip — for paper
  8. court — of a king
  9. drill — a practice
  10. fork — to eat with
  11. file — a tool
  12. drill — the tool
  13. clip — a video
  14. spell — a short time
  15. spring — of water
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. spell — magic
  18. file — a line of people
  19. perch — the fish
  20. spell — letters
  21. clip — to cut
  22. court — for sport
  23. fork — in a road
  24. file — a document

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