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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The ________________ took off on time.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  22. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  23. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. row — a line
  3. march — the month
  4. cold — an illness
  5. plane — an aircraft
  6. net — for catching
  7. net — in sport
  8. march — the month
  9. wind — moving air
  10. cold — not warm
  11. last — finally
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. last — to go on
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. plane — a tool
  16. row — to paddle
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. wind — moving air
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. march — music
  21. plane — in geometry
  22. trunk — of a car
  23. net — after costs
  24. cold — the Cold War

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