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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. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  7. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  19. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. The ________________ went through the wall.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. band — a ring
  3. chest — of your body
  4. drill — the tool
  5. march — music
  6. nail — for a hammer
  7. squash — the vegetable
  8. content — happy
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. drill — army training
  11. squash — to crush
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. drill — a practice
  14. content — the amount
  15. march — the month
  16. chest — of your body
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. cell — a phone
  19. squash — the sport
  20. band — a music group
  21. cell — in biology
  22. nail — for a hammer
  23. chest — a box
  24. nail — on a finger

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