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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. The King held a masked ________________.
  5. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  11. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  12. The ________________ went through the wall.
  13. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  18. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  19. The ________________ market has crashed.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  22. He is an ace ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. craft — a skill
  3. file — a tool
  4. ball — a dance
  5. ball — a round shape
  6. cold — not warm
  7. ball — a great time
  8. cold — an illness
  9. file — a line of people
  10. band — a rubber band
  11. craft — boats
  12. nail — for a hammer
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. craft — a handicraft
  18. stock — goods
  19. stock — shares
  20. band — a music group
  21. nail — for a hammer
  22. pitcher — in baseball
  23. file — a document
  24. nail — on a finger

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