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

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. I'll be taking the ________________.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  8. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  11. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. My mare is ________________ in color.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. tube — the underground
  4. tear — from crying
  5. tear — to rip
  6. clip — for paper
  7. tube — in a tire
  8. bay — a part of the sea
  9. last — to go on
  10. mine — for digging
  11. last — final
  12. last — finally
  13. bay — to keep at bay
  14. field — a subject
  15. band — a music group
  16. clip — to cut
  17. bay — a horse colour
  18. tear — from crying
  19. tube — a container
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. clip — a video
  22. field — for sport
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. field — farmland

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