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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.

Words on the sheet
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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: land · cold · squash · scale · ground · clip · rush · march

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  12. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  13. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. That must've been a ________________.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. You shouldn't ________________ things.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. scale — for weighing
  3. land — ground
  4. land — to come down
  5. rush — hurry
  6. clip — for paper
  7. scale — size or range
  8. squash — to crush
  9. cold — not warm
  10. land — a country
  11. ground — the earth
  12. ground — crushed
  13. squash — the vegetable
  14. march — the month
  15. ground — a position
  16. squash — the sport
  17. clip — to cut
  18. rush — a thrill
  19. march — the month
  20. clip — a video
  21. march — music
  22. scale — in music
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. rush — to hurry

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