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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: rock · land · rest · bay · spring · file · march · drill

  1. My mare is ________________ in color.
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  5. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  21. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  22. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.

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

Answer key

  1. bay — a horse colour
  2. rock — music
  3. land — to come down
  4. rest — a break
  5. bay — to keep at bay
  6. spring — the season
  7. drill — a practice
  8. land — a country
  9. land — ground
  10. march — music
  11. file — a line of people
  12. spring — a coil
  13. spring — of water
  14. rest — what's left
  15. march — the month
  16. bay — a part of the sea
  17. file — a document
  18. rock — a stone
  19. march — the month
  20. rock — to move gently
  21. drill — army training
  22. rest — what's left
  23. file — a tool
  24. drill — the tool

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