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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. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. We're almost out of ________________.
  4. You don't need to ________________ round.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  7. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  8. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  11. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  12. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  13. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. row — a line
  3. pop — soda
  4. pop — to visit
  5. clip — to cut
  6. squash — the vegetable
  7. squash — the sport
  8. pop — music
  9. clip — a video
  10. rock — to move gently
  11. squash — to crush
  12. craft — a skill
  13. rock — a stone
  14. wound — an injury
  15. craft — a handicraft
  16. clip — for paper
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. march — the month
  19. craft — boats
  20. row — to paddle
  21. wound — an injury
  22. march — music
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. march — the month

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