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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. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. How do you ________________ your surname?
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. wind — moving air
  6. shower — to wash
  7. prune — to trim
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. chest — a box
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. spell — letters
  13. spell — magic
  14. prune — to trim
  15. tear — to rip
  16. tear — from crying
  17. chest — of your body
  18. perch — the fish
  19. wind — moving air
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. chest — of your body
  23. shower — rain
  24. spell — a short time

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