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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.

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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 · cold · march · cabinet · file · clip · spring · stock

  1. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  2. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. What do you think of the new ________________?
  7. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  8. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  15. The ________________ market has crashed.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. cabinet — ministers
  3. cold — an illness
  4. board — a committee
  5. spring — of water
  6. cabinet — ministers
  7. march — music
  8. stock — goods
  9. spring — a coil
  10. board — a flat piece
  11. file — a tool
  12. clip — to cut
  13. file — a document
  14. cabinet — a cupboard
  15. stock — shares
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. march — the month
  18. cold — not warm
  19. board — to get on
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. clip — for paper
  22. clip — a video
  23. spring — the season
  24. file — a line of people

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