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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: march · shower · ground · file · coach · game · spell · drill

  1. That was a fun ________________.
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  6. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. Have you met the new head ________________?
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. There's no middle ________________.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  19. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  20. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  21. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  22. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. spell — magic
  3. march — the month
  4. march — music
  5. ground — crushed
  6. coach — pulled by horses
  7. file — a document
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. spell — letters
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. ground — a position
  12. drill — the tool
  13. shower — to wash
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. ground — the earth
  16. file — a tool
  17. file — a line of people
  18. march — the month
  19. drill — army training
  20. drill — a practice
  21. spell — a short time
  22. coach — a trainer
  23. shower — rain
  24. game — wild animals

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