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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 120 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: cold · bore · coach · clip · drill · scale · deal · spell

  1. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  5. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  6. Have you met the new head ________________?
  7. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  8. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  22. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  24. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. spell — magic
  3. cold — an illness
  4. drill — army training
  5. deal — a big deal
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. deal — an agreement
  8. scale — size or range
  9. clip — for paper
  10. bore — to tire
  11. clip — a video
  12. cold — not warm
  13. deal — to handle
  14. clip — to cut
  15. drill — a practice
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. drill — the tool
  18. bore — to drill
  19. scale — in music
  20. spell — a short time
  21. bore — gave birth
  22. coach — a trainer
  23. scale — for weighing
  24. coach — pulled by horses

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