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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. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  2. Have you met the new head ________________?
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  7. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  14. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  15. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  16. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  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. kick — a thrill
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. drill — army training
  4. bore — to tire
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. bore — gave birth
  7. drill — the tool
  8. row — to paddle
  9. march — the month
  10. degree — an amount
  11. prune — to trim
  12. degree — temperature
  13. coach — pulled by horses
  14. bore — to drill
  15. kick — in football
  16. kick — with a leg
  17. degree — from a university
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. row — a line
  20. prune — to trim
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. march — music
  23. drill — a practice
  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