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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 · fan · spell · ball · march · lean · straw · cap

  1. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  12. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  13. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  14. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  15. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  18. The King held a masked ________________.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  24. The kitten curled into a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. march — music
  2. cold — an illness
  3. fan — to cool the air
  4. spell — letters
  5. lean — to rest against
  6. march — the month
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. spell — a short time
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. march — the month
  11. cap — a hat
  12. cap — of ice
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. ball — a great time
  15. lean — to bend
  16. cold — not warm
  17. cap — a lid
  18. ball — a dance
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. spell — magic
  23. lean — thin
  24. ball — a round shape

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