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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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  18. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  24. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. band — a ring
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. ball — a round shape
  5. spring — of water
  6. ball — a dance
  7. calf — a young animal
  8. chest — of your body
  9. tube — the underground
  10. clip — for paper
  11. chest — a box
  12. row — a line
  13. clip — a video
  14. tube — in a tire
  15. chest — of your body
  16. band — a music group
  17. calf — of the leg
  18. tube — a container
  19. spring — a coil
  20. clip — to cut
  21. row — to paddle
  22. spring — the season
  23. calf — a young animal
  24. ball — a great 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