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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: prune · toast · march · cold · perch · shower · row · field

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  22. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  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. cold — not warm
  2. toast — a drink to someone
  3. field — a subject
  4. toast — bread
  5. shower — to wash
  6. row — a line
  7. prune — to trim
  8. field — farmland
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. perch — the fish
  12. shower — rain
  13. cold — an illness
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. prune — to trim
  16. march — the month
  17. march — the month
  18. march — music
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. field — for sport
  21. toast — the most admired
  22. row — a quarrel
  23. row — to paddle
  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