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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. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  6. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  7. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  12. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the fish
  2. march — the month
  3. drill — a practice
  4. march — music
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. drill — army training
  7. drill — the tool
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. capital — money
  11. bass — the instrument
  12. perch — the fish
  13. wound — an injury
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. capital — a city
  16. mine — for digging
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. bat — the animal
  21. wound — an injury
  22. march — the month
  23. bass — low music
  24. perch — for a bird

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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