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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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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: present · fall · clip · dip · march · game · cold · fork

  1. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  5. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  12. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.

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

Answer key

  1. dip — a sauce
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. march — the month
  4. present — there
  5. present — a gift
  6. clip — for paper
  7. fall — the season
  8. cold — not warm
  9. fall — to drop
  10. march — the month
  11. present — the time now
  12. march — music
  13. cold — an illness
  14. fork — in a road
  15. game — wild animals
  16. dip — to dunk
  17. fall — to drop
  18. fork — to eat with
  19. clip — a video
  20. dip — to sink
  21. game — a match
  22. clip — to cut
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. fork — a garden tool

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