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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. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  4. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  10. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  19. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  20. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  21. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  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. club — for dancing
  2. cold — not warm
  3. fine — all right
  4. club — a group
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. fine — a penalty
  7. perch — the fish
  8. content — happy
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. pitch — a sports field
  11. cold — an illness
  12. clip — for paper
  13. fine — high quality
  14. march — the month
  15. content — the amount
  16. march — music
  17. clip — to cut
  18. march — the month
  19. club — for golf
  20. pitch — a sales talk
  21. pitch — completely
  22. clip — a video
  23. content — videos and posts
  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