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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. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  12. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. band — a ring
  4. fall — to drop
  5. shower — rain
  6. last — finally
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. clip — to cut
  9. band — a music group
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. sharp — clever
  12. march — music
  13. last — to go on
  14. prune — to trim
  15. clip — for paper
  16. fall — the season
  17. prune — to trim
  18. fall — to drop
  19. march — the month
  20. last — final
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. shower — to wash
  23. sharp — with an edge
  24. clip — a video

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