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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. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  5. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  8. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  11. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  15. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  16. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  20. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. perch — the fish
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. pitch — a sports field
  5. squash — the sport
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. rule — a law
  8. wake — a trail
  9. clip — to cut
  10. wake — to stop sleeping
  11. pitch — a sales talk
  12. squash — to crush
  13. clip — a video
  14. pitch — completely
  15. wake — before a funeral
  16. content — happy
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. squash — the vegetable
  20. rule — government
  21. clip — for paper
  22. rule — to rule out
  23. content — the amount
  24. mine — for digging

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