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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 116 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 · mate · land · bark · straw · drill · tear · row

  1. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. Have you found your soul ________________?
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — to breed
  2. march — the month
  3. mate — a friend
  4. land — a country
  5. land — to come down
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. tear — from crying
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. tear — to rip
  13. drill — army training
  14. tear — from crying
  15. row — to paddle
  16. mate — a partner
  17. bark — to shout
  18. drill — a practice
  19. row — a line
  20. drill — the tool
  21. march — the month
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. land — ground
  24. march — music

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