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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  11. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  14. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  15. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  16. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  22. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  23. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. capital — money
  3. capital — a city
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. scale — in music
  8. perch — the fish
  9. cold — not warm
  10. bear — to put up with
  11. bear — the animal
  12. row — to paddle
  13. scale — for weighing
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. present — the time now
  16. bear — the animal
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. row — a line
  19. cold — an illness
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. present — a gift
  22. present — there
  23. scale — size or range
  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