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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. My father caught me by the ________________.
  2. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  3. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  6. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  9. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. It's one o'clock ________________.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. arm — part of the body
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. court — of a king
  6. wake — a trail
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. perch — the fish
  9. wake — to stop sleeping
  10. sharp — clever
  11. court — for sport
  12. file — a tool
  13. file — a document
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. sharp — with an edge
  18. capital — money
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. capital — a city
  21. sharp — exactly
  22. court — of law
  23. arm — a part of something
  24. file — a line of people

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