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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 116 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. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  7. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  8. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  9. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  12. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. bass — the instrument
  3. bass — low music
  4. fork — to eat with
  5. game — a match
  6. scale — in music
  7. bear — to put up with
  8. bass — the fish
  9. fork — a garden tool
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. scale — for weighing
  12. bear — the animal
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. bear — the animal
  15. game — wild animals
  16. field — a subject
  17. march — music
  18. march — the month
  19. field — for sport
  20. bark — to shout
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. scale — size or range
  23. fork — in a road
  24. field — farmland

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