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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 116 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. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  17. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the vegetable
  2. file — a tool
  3. file — a document
  4. march — the month
  5. march — music
  6. bark — to shout
  7. race — the arms race
  8. march — the month
  9. squash — the sport
  10. cold — not warm
  11. bank — of a river
  12. file — a line of people
  13. squash — to crush
  14. race — humankind
  15. cold — an illness
  16. bank — for money
  17. bank — for money
  18. field — for sport
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. field — farmland
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. field — a subject
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. race — a contest

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