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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: march · toast · clip · wake · mate · chest · cold · squash

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  5. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  6. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  7. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Have you found your soul ________________?
  10. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  11. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  15. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  22. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  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 — an illness
  2. march — music
  3. clip — a video
  4. wake — to stop sleeping
  5. mate — a friend
  6. toast — bread
  7. squash — to crush
  8. clip — for paper
  9. mate — a partner
  10. squash — the sport
  11. toast — the most admired
  12. mate — to breed
  13. chest — of your body
  14. toast — a drink to someone
  15. wake — before a funeral
  16. chest — a box
  17. march — the month
  18. march — the month
  19. chest — of your body
  20. clip — to cut
  21. wake — a trail
  22. squash — the vegetable
  23. cold — not warm
  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