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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: land · perch · fine · capital · cold · chest · fork · pound

  1. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  12. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  13. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  14. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  23. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. chest — of your body
  3. perch — the fish
  4. cold — not warm
  5. capital — a city
  6. fine — a penalty
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. land — a country
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. land — ground
  11. fine — high quality
  12. pound — for dogs
  13. fine — all right
  14. pound — to hit hard
  15. chest — of your body
  16. fork — to eat with
  17. cold — an illness
  18. chest — a box
  19. fork — in a road
  20. capital — money
  21. land — to come down
  22. fork — a garden tool
  23. pound — a weight
  24. capital — a big letter

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