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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: season · drill · stand · march · kid · chair · mine · cold

  1. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  4. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  5. Did you ________________ the meat?
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  8. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  17. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  18. I can't ________________ this cold.
  19. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. cold — an illness
  3. stand — for spectators
  4. drill — army training
  5. season — to add flavour
  6. march — the month
  7. drill — the tool
  8. season — in sport
  9. march — the month
  10. march — music
  11. kid — to tease
  12. drill — a practice
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. mine — for digging
  16. chair — a professorship
  17. chair — a leader
  18. stand — to bear
  19. season — of the year
  20. kid — child
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. cold — not warm
  23. stand — on your feet
  24. cold — the Cold War

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