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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. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. It's one o'clock ________________.
  5. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  6. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  17. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  18. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  19. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  20. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — low music
  2. march — music
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. sharp — exactly
  5. track — to keep track
  6. bass — the fish
  7. cold — not warm
  8. drill — army training
  9. drill — the tool
  10. sharp — clever
  11. track — a song
  12. march — the month
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. scale — size or range
  15. cold — an illness
  16. bass — the instrument
  17. hide — to keep secret
  18. drill — a practice
  19. hide — animal skin
  20. track — a path
  21. march — the month
  22. scale — in music
  23. hide — to keep secret
  24. scale — for weighing

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