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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. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  6. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  11. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  12. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  13. Have you settled on a ________________?
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  22. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  23. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  24. We were using a ________________ as a seat.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — before a funeral
  2. march — music
  3. wind — moving air
  4. cold — an illness
  5. rock — music
  6. bear — the animal
  7. clip — a video
  8. clip — for paper
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. bear — to put up with
  11. wake — a trail
  12. wake — to stop sleeping
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. wind — moving air
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. march — the month
  18. clip — to cut
  19. march — the month
  20. cold — not warm
  21. rock — to move gently
  22. bear — the animal
  23. date — the fruit
  24. rock — a stone

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