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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: march · row · last · drill · cold · rule · trunk · pound

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  3. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  7. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  8. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  9. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  22. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. drill — the tool
  3. rule — government
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. last — to go on
  6. last — finally
  7. march — music
  8. trunk — of a tree
  9. pound — to hit hard
  10. drill — army training
  11. march — the month
  12. last — final
  13. row — a line
  14. march — the month
  15. pound — for dogs
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. drill — a practice
  18. rule — to rule out
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. row — to paddle
  21. pound — a weight
  22. trunk — of a car
  23. cold — an illness
  24. rule — a law

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