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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: board · straw · wind · march · snap · bass · spring · field

  1. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  2. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  22. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. board — a committee
  2. board — to get on
  3. spring — of water
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. bass — the instrument
  6. snap — to click
  7. march — the month
  8. wind — moving air
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. field — for sport
  11. board — a flat piece
  12. march — the month
  13. spring — the season
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. field — a subject
  16. wind — moving air
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. field — farmland
  20. march — music
  21. bass — low music
  22. bass — the fish
  23. spring — a coil
  24. straw — dry grass

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