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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 water is too ________________.
  2. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  3. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  4. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  5. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. Have you met the new head ________________?
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. We're on a ________________ here.
  14. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  19. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. march — the month
  3. bowl — a dish
  4. coach — a trainer
  5. bowl — to roll
  6. row — a line
  7. row — to paddle
  8. march — the month
  9. roll — a cake
  10. clip — a video
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. clip — for paper
  13. roll — on a roll
  14. roll — a list
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. clip — to cut
  17. cold — an illness
  18. bowl — a football final
  19. coach — pulled by horses
  20. snap — to click
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. march — music

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