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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: cold · march · bark · row · racket · scale · spell · rest

  1. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  16. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — a break
  2. march — music
  3. spell — letters
  4. march — the month
  5. racket — for tennis
  6. cold — an illness
  7. march — the month
  8. row — to paddle
  9. scale — in music
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. spell — magic
  12. rest — what's left
  13. row — a line
  14. bark — to shout
  15. scale — for weighing
  16. rest — what's left
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. spell — a short time
  19. scale — size or range
  20. racket — for tennis
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. cold — not warm
  23. racket — a loud noise
  24. bark — of a tree

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