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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  3. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  9. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  10. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  14. You don't need to ________________ round.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. stem — to come from
  4. hand — help
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. chest — a box
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. pop — music
  9. perch — the fish
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. last — to go on
  13. stem — of a plant
  14. pop — to visit
  15. pop — soda
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. snap — to click
  18. chest — of your body
  19. last — finally
  20. stem — a stem cell
  21. row — a line
  22. chest — of your body
  23. row — to paddle
  24. hand — in cards

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