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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: capital · swing · cold · bark · perch · bat · row · stem

  1. David sat on the ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  8. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  9. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — to play on
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. cold — not warm
  5. perch — the fish
  6. capital — money
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. stem — to come from
  9. stem — a stem cell
  10. bat — the animal
  11. cold — an illness
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. swing — in golf
  14. row — to paddle
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. swing — music
  17. row — a line
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. stem — of a plant
  23. bark — to shout
  24. capital — a city

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