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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. Have you settled on a ________________?
  14. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. patient — calm and waiting
  3. cold — not warm
  4. patient — a sick person
  5. band — a music group
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. kid — child
  8. cold — an illness
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. date — the fruit
  12. content — the amount
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. kid — to tease
  18. content — happy

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