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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: wake · march · clip · fall · court · row · wound · mark

  1. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  7. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  10. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  11. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  12. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. march — music
  2. wound — an injury
  3. court — for sport
  4. clip — for paper
  5. fall — to drop
  6. fall — the season
  7. fall — to drop
  8. court — of a king
  9. mark — a trace
  10. wake — to stop sleeping
  11. mark — to pay attention
  12. mark — a grade
  13. court — of law
  14. clip — to cut
  15. wake — a trail
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. row — a line
  18. march — the month
  19. row — to paddle
  20. march — the month
  21. clip — a video
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. wake — before a funeral
  24. wound — an injury

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