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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. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  5. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  9. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  16. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. Have you found your soul ________________?
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. march — music
  3. cold — an illness
  4. bear — the animal
  5. bear — the animal
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. drill — a practice
  9. drill — army training
  10. clip — a video
  11. clip — to cut
  12. march — the month
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. cold — not warm
  15. bear — to put up with
  16. mate — to breed
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. mate — a friend
  19. bat — the animal
  20. clip — for paper
  21. drill — the tool
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. mate — a partner
  24. march — the month

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