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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 owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  7. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. face — to point toward
  3. shower — rain
  4. mine — for digging
  5. fall — to drop
  6. face — to confront
  7. face — part of the head
  8. chair — a leader
  9. kid — child
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. shower — to wash
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. fall — to drop
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. cold — an illness
  20. cold — not warm
  21. kid — to tease
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. perch — the fish
  24. fall — the season

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