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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 120 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 muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  4. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  8. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  9. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  22. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  23. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. track — a path
  2. clip — for paper
  3. drill — the tool
  4. dip — to dunk
  5. kid — to tease
  6. march — music
  7. dip — a sauce
  8. track — a song
  9. track — to keep track
  10. march — the month
  11. land — ground
  12. kid — child
  13. bear — the animal
  14. land — to come down
  15. bear — the animal
  16. clip — a video
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. march — the month
  19. land — a country
  20. drill — army training
  21. drill — a practice
  22. bear — to put up with
  23. dip — to sink
  24. clip — to cut

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