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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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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. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  4. Have you found your soul ________________?
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  24. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.

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. kick — in football
  4. mate — a partner
  5. march — the month
  6. cold — not warm
  7. spring — the season
  8. kick — with a leg
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. wound — an injury
  11. spring — of water
  12. kick — a thrill
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. march — music
  16. mate — a friend
  17. cold — an illness
  18. band — a music group
  19. mate — to breed
  20. spring — a coil
  21. scale — size or range
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. scale — in music
  24. wound — an injury

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