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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. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  2. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  5. He was locked up in a ________________.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  18. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. This piece is in a major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. key — for a lock
  2. drill — the tool
  3. prune — to trim
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. cell — in a prison
  6. cell — a phone
  7. game — wild animals
  8. perch — the fish
  9. chest — of your body
  10. chest — a box
  11. key — the most important part
  12. game — a match
  13. drill — a practice
  14. chest — of your body
  15. cold — an illness
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. prune — the fruit
  18. prune — to trim
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. cold — not warm
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. drill — army training
  23. cell — in biology
  24. key — in music

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