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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. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  11. We're on a ________________ here.
  12. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  18. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.

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

Answer key

  1. march — music
  2. chest — of your body
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. roll — a cake
  5. swing — to play on
  6. squash — the vegetable
  7. chest — of your body
  8. march — the month
  9. degree — from a university
  10. bass — the instrument
  11. roll — on a roll
  12. bass — the fish
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. squash — the sport
  15. chest — a box
  16. swing — in golf
  17. roll — a list
  18. bass — low music
  19. degree — an amount
  20. squash — to crush
  21. degree — temperature
  22. march — the month
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. swing — music

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