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

Word bank: march · straw · kid · foot · board · wind · content · fan

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  9. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  10. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  13. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. kid — child
  3. fan — to cool the air
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. board — a committee
  6. march — the month
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. foot — part of the body
  9. board — a flat piece
  10. foot — the bottom
  11. wind — moving air
  12. board — to get on
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. kid — to tease
  15. march — music
  16. content — the amount
  17. wind — moving air
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. foot — a measure
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. march — the month

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