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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: shower · chest · bass · march · stick · field · bound · last

  1. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  11. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  16. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  17. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  18. That was ________________ to happen.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  21. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — low music
  2. chest — of your body
  3. last — finally
  4. march — music
  5. shower — to wash
  6. shower — rain
  7. march — the month
  8. last — to go on
  9. march — the month
  10. bound — tied together
  11. stick — a piece of wood
  12. field — for sport
  13. chest — of your body
  14. field — a subject
  15. bound — obliged
  16. bass — the instrument
  17. last — final
  18. bound — certain
  19. field — farmland
  20. stick — a piece of wood
  21. stick — to attach or keep to
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. bass — the fish
  24. chest — a box

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