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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 120 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 owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  5. You don't need to ________________ round.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  14. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. We're almost out of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. degree — from a university
  4. mark — a trace
  5. pop — to visit
  6. clip — for paper
  7. clip — to cut
  8. capital — money
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. degree — temperature
  11. file — a line of people
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. pop — music
  14. mark — to pay attention
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. file — a tool
  17. file — a document
  18. mark — a grade
  19. clip — a video
  20. perch — the fish
  21. chair — a leader
  22. degree — an amount
  23. capital — a city
  24. pop — soda

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