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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: march · deal · pitcher · cold · file · band · craft · roll

  1. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  2. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  3. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. He is an ace ________________.
  6. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  9. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. We're on a ________________ here.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  22. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  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. deal — a big deal
  2. deal — an agreement
  3. roll — a cake
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. pitcher — in baseball
  6. deal — to handle
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. craft — boats
  9. band — a music group
  10. march — music
  11. march — the month
  12. craft — a handicraft
  13. cold — not warm
  14. roll — on a roll
  15. file — a tool
  16. roll — a list
  17. file — a document
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. cold — an illness
  20. band — a ring
  21. craft — a skill
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. march — the month
  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