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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. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. There's no middle ________________.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. Have you settled on a ________________?
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. march — music
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. chest — a box
  4. march — the month
  5. ground — a position
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. row — to paddle
  8. ground — crushed
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. chest — of your body
  12. content — happy
  13. band — a ring
  14. field — farmland
  15. chest — of your body
  16. band — a music group
  17. row — a line
  18. date — the fruit
  19. ground — the earth
  20. field — a subject
  21. march — the month
  22. content — the amount
  23. field — for sport
  24. date — on the calendar

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