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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. I'll be taking the ________________.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  15. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  23. That must've been a ________________.
  24. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. tube — the underground
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. lash — an eyelash
  5. wound — an injury
  6. march — the month
  7. wound — an injury
  8. kid — child
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. rush — to hurry
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. tube — in a tire
  15. rush — hurry
  16. band — a music group
  17. cold — an illness
  18. march — the month
  19. tube — a container
  20. band — a ring
  21. march — music
  22. lash — to lash out
  23. rush — a thrill
  24. lash — a whip stroke

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