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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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Word bank
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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: bear · game · clip · craft · perch · content · cold · straw

  1. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  2. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  5. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  20. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  21. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  22. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. craft — boats
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. perch — the fish
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. content — the amount
  7. clip — for paper
  8. clip — to cut
  9. game — a match
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. cold — not warm
  13. cold — an illness
  14. clip — a video
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. bear — to put up with
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. craft — a skill
  20. bear — the animal
  21. bear — the animal
  22. craft — a handicraft
  23. content — happy
  24. game — wild animals

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