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

  1. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. file — a tool
  3. pass — to succeed
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. drill — a practice
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. hand — help
  9. wound — an injury
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. hand — in cards
  12. file — a line of people
  13. pass — to spend time
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. file — a document
  17. march — the month
  18. march — music
  19. march — the month
  20. pass — a permit
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. drill — the tool
  23. chair — a leader
  24. drill — army training

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