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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: perch · snap · plane · spell · track · drill · cold · clip

  1. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  2. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  5. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. The ________________ took off on time.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  21. How do you ________________ your surname?
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  24. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — army training
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. snap — to click
  4. plane — in geometry
  5. track — to keep track
  6. clip — a video
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. cold — not warm
  10. clip — for paper
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. plane — an aircraft
  13. clip — to cut
  14. drill — the tool
  15. cold — an illness
  16. plane — a tool
  17. spell — magic
  18. track — a path
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. drill — a practice
  21. spell — letters
  22. spell — a short time
  23. track — a song
  24. perch — the fish

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