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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. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  3. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  20. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  21. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  22. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. kick — a thrill
  3. rule — a law
  4. content — happy
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. wound — an injury
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. perch — the fish
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. field — farmland
  11. rule — to rule out
  12. cold — an illness
  13. dip — to sink
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. content — the amount
  16. wound — an injury
  17. dip — to dunk
  18. field — a subject
  19. dip — a sauce
  20. rule — government
  21. kick — in football
  22. kick — with a leg
  23. cold — not warm
  24. field — for sport

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