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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 116 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.

Words on the sheet
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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 · march · leaves · clip · spell · rash · chip · pitcher

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  4. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  7. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  12. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. Don't do anything ________________.
  19. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  22. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. He is an ace ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. march — the month
  3. rash — on the skin
  4. spell — magic
  5. march — music
  6. leaves — to go away
  7. leaves — lets stay
  8. clip — for paper
  9. chip — in a computer
  10. spell — letters
  11. rash — a series
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. cold — an illness
  14. chip — for betting
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. spell — a short time
  17. clip — a video
  18. rash — hasty
  19. leaves — of a tree
  20. march — the month
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. chip — to eat
  23. clip — to cut
  24. pitcher — in baseball

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