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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 soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  2. I'll be taking the ________________.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  6. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  13. Have you met the new head ________________?
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. It's one o'clock ________________.
  24. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — army training
  2. tube — the underground
  3. drill — a practice
  4. clip — for paper
  5. sharp — with an edge
  6. tube — a container
  7. sharp — clever
  8. root — of a plant
  9. drill — the tool
  10. clip — a video
  11. clip — to cut
  12. coach — pulled by horses
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. hand — help
  15. root — of a word
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. cold — an illness
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. hand — in cards
  21. cold — not warm
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. sharp — exactly
  24. root — the cause

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