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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.

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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: march · kid · cold · pitcher · chair · content · prune · drill

  1. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  10. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. He is an ace ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. prune — to trim
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. content — happy
  5. march — the month
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. kid — child
  8. cold — not warm
  9. drill — army training
  10. drill — the tool
  11. march — music
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. cold — an illness
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. drill — a practice
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. content — the amount
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. chair — a leader
  21. march — the month
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. kid — to tease
  24. pitcher — in 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