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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: bat · chest · sharp · capital · perch · ground · roll · season

  1. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  3. It's one o'clock ________________.
  4. We're on a ________________ here.
  5. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  6. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  9. There's no middle ________________.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  22. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  23. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. sharp — exactly
  4. roll — on a roll
  5. sharp — with an edge
  6. season — in sport
  7. bat — the animal
  8. roll — a list
  9. ground — a position
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. perch — the fish
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. sharp — clever
  14. chest — a box
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. capital — a city
  17. chest — of your body
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. ground — the earth
  20. capital — money
  21. roll — a cake
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. season — of the year
  24. chest — of your body

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