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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. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. There's no middle ________________.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  10. It's one o'clock ________________.
  11. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  21. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. ground — crushed
  3. tear — from crying
  4. chair — a leader
  5. perch — the fish
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. ground — a position
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. sharp — exactly
  11. sharp — clever
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. tear — from crying
  14. ground — the earth
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. cold — an illness
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. sharp — with an edge
  21. fan — a supporter
  22. cold — not warm
  23. tear — to rip
  24. perch — for a bird

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