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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 put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  13. How do you ________________ your surname?
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. David sat on the ________________.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a rubber band
  2. band — a ring
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. cell — in biology
  5. spell — magic
  6. band — a music group
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. ground — crushed
  9. cell — a phone
  10. bat — the animal
  11. kid — child
  12. ground — the earth
  13. spell — letters
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. ground — a position
  16. swing — to play on
  17. swing — in golf
  18. spell — a short time
  19. kid — to tease
  20. swing — music
  21. shower — rain
  22. shower — to wash
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. bat — for baseball

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