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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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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: prune · drill · mine · cold · march · wind · arm · coach

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. Have you met the new head ________________?
  6. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  10. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  17. My father caught me by the ________________.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  22. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  23. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. arm — a part of something
  3. cold — an illness
  4. wind — moving air
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. march — the month
  7. mine — for digging
  8. march — music
  9. coach — a trainer
  10. coach — pulled by horses
  11. cold — not warm
  12. prune — to trim
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. prune — to trim
  16. arm — part of the body
  17. arm — part of the body
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. drill — a practice
  22. wind — moving air
  23. drill — the tool
  24. drill — army training

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