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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. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. We're almost out of ________________.
  6. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  9. You don't need to ________________ round.
  10. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  11. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  19. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The ________________ market has crashed.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. chest — a box
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. pop — soda
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. degree — from a university
  8. fan — to cool the air
  9. pop — to visit
  10. pop — music
  11. root — the cause
  12. chest — of your body
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. perch — the fish
  15. stock — goods
  16. chest — of your body
  17. degree — an amount
  18. root — of a word
  19. stock — a soup base
  20. cold — an illness
  21. stock — shares
  22. degree — temperature
  23. cold — not warm
  24. root — of a plant

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