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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. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. My mare is ________________ in color.
  9. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  10. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  13. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. march — music
  2. chest — a box
  3. march — the month
  4. degree — temperature
  5. hand — in cards
  6. hand — help
  7. cold — an illness
  8. bay — a horse colour
  9. bay — a part of the sea
  10. wake — a trail
  11. cold — not warm
  12. march — the month
  13. bay — to keep at bay
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. file — a tool
  16. file — a line of people
  17. degree — from a university
  18. chest — of your body
  19. wake — before a funeral
  20. degree — an amount
  21. wake — to stop sleeping
  22. file — a document
  23. chest — of your body
  24. hand — part of the body

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