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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. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  7. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  11. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  12. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  22. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. chest — of your body
  3. snap — to click
  4. dip — to dunk
  5. march — the month
  6. dip — a sauce
  7. fork — to eat with
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. chest — of your body
  10. fork — a garden tool
  11. pit — a fruit stone
  12. snap — to speak sharply
  13. degree — temperature
  14. degree — from a university
  15. march — music
  16. drill — the tool
  17. dip — to sink
  18. chest — a box
  19. drill — a practice
  20. degree — an amount
  21. pit — a hole
  22. pit — in a race
  23. drill — army training
  24. fork — in a road

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