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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. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  8. How do you ________________ your surname?
  9. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  10. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. What do you think of the new ________________?
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. mark — to pay attention
  3. march — music
  4. drill — the tool
  5. hand — help
  6. march — the month
  7. mark — a grade
  8. spell — letters
  9. drill — army training
  10. cabinet — a cupboard
  11. field — a subject
  12. cabinet — ministers
  13. spell — a short time
  14. march — the month
  15. tear — from crying
  16. drill — a practice
  17. tear — to rip
  18. field — farmland
  19. mark — a trace
  20. hand — in cards
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. cabinet — ministers
  23. field — for sport
  24. spell — magic

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