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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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The ________________ went through the wall.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  9. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. False peace will not ________________.
  12. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. We're on a ________________ here.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  23. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  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. last — finally
  2. cold — not warm
  3. nail — for a hammer
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. capital — money
  6. nail — on a finger
  7. capital — a city
  8. roll — a list
  9. trunk — of a car
  10. row — to paddle
  11. last — to go on
  12. last — final
  13. march — the month
  14. nail — for a hammer
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. march — music
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. row — a line
  20. roll — on a roll
  21. cold — an illness
  22. trunk — of a tree
  23. roll — a cake
  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