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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's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  8. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  9. He works in a ________________ mill.
  10. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. It's one o'clock ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. The ________________ went through the wall.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. How do you ________________ your surname?
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  20. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. cold — not warm
  3. band — a ring
  4. sharp — clever
  5. nail — for a hammer
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. sharp — with an edge
  8. nail — on a finger
  9. saw — the tool
  10. band — a rubber band
  11. saw — the tool
  12. sharp — exactly
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. wind — moving air
  15. nail — for a hammer
  16. row — a line
  17. spell — letters
  18. row — to paddle
  19. spell — magic
  20. saw — past of 'see'
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. cold — an illness
  23. wind — moving air
  24. spell — a short time

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