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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 120 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. The King held a masked ________________.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  18. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  19. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a dance
  2. band — a ring
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. clip — to cut
  7. chest — a box
  8. pitch — a sports field
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. bat — the animal
  11. clip — for paper
  12. chest — of your body
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. clip — a video
  15. band — a music group
  16. pitch — completely
  17. scale — in music
  18. ball — a great time
  19. pitch — a sales talk
  20. wind — moving air
  21. scale — size or range
  22. ball — a round shape
  23. wind — moving air
  24. chest — of your body

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