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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: game · pit · march · ground · drill · kid · wind · file

  1. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  16. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. There's no middle ________________.
  20. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a fruit stone
  2. file — a line of people
  3. ground — crushed
  4. wind — moving air
  5. drill — army training
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. ground — the earth
  8. march — music
  9. march — the month
  10. game — a match
  11. file — a document
  12. game — wild animals
  13. drill — the tool
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. pit — a hole
  16. pit — in a race
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. march — the month
  19. ground — a position
  20. drill — a practice
  21. kid — child
  22. file — a tool
  23. kid — to tease
  24. wind — moving air

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