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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 party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  7. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. Don't do anything ________________.
  20. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. He works in a ________________ mill.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — a series
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. snap — to click
  4. march — music
  5. bark — to shout
  6. march — the month
  7. rash — on the skin
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. cold — an illness
  11. saw — the tool
  12. file — a document
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. march — the month
  16. cold — not warm
  17. bark — a dog's sound
  18. bat — the animal
  19. rash — hasty
  20. saw — past of 'see'
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. file — a line of people
  23. file — a tool
  24. saw — the tool

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