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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  7. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  8. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  19. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. jam — a tight spot
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. band — a ring
  5. land — a country
  6. jam — to spread on bread
  7. ruler — for measuring
  8. ruler — a monarch
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. chest — of your body
  11. chest — a box
  12. net — in sport
  13. land — ground
  14. net — for catching
  15. land — to come down
  16. cold — an illness
  17. clip — a video
  18. net — after costs
  19. ruler — for measuring
  20. chest — of your body
  21. jam — in traffic
  22. clip — for paper
  23. cold — not warm
  24. band — a music group

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