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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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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: bat · cold · pit · tear · game · march · mouse · pop

  1. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  7. You don't need to ________________ round.
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  11. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  12. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  19. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. We're almost out of ________________.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. march — music
  2. tear — from crying
  3. cold — an illness
  4. bat — the animal
  5. march — the month
  6. pit — a hole
  7. pop — to visit
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. tear — to rip
  10. pit — in a race
  11. pop — music
  12. mouse — for a computer
  13. tear — from crying
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. game — a match
  17. cold — not warm
  18. mouse — the animal
  19. pit — a fruit stone
  20. march — the month
  21. pop — soda
  22. game — wild animals
  23. mouse — the animal
  24. bat — for baseball

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