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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: ground · perch · drill · rush · tear · last · bat · sharp

  1. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  3. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  9. That must've been a ________________.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  12. It's one o'clock ________________.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  15. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. There's no middle ________________.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  22. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. drill — army training
  3. rush — hurry
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. tear — from crying
  6. last — to go on
  7. sharp — clever
  8. perch — the fish
  9. rush — a thrill
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. sharp — exactly
  13. tear — to rip
  14. rush — to hurry
  15. drill — the tool
  16. bat — the animal
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. ground — a position
  19. last — final
  20. tear — from crying
  21. last — finally
  22. drill — a practice
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. ground — the earth

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