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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 124 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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468
Word bank
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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. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The ________________ took off on time.
  18. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. degree — an amount
  5. stock — shares
  6. band — a ring
  7. kid — child
  8. stock — goods
  9. wind — moving air
  10. band — a music group
  11. stock — a soup base
  12. degree — from a university
  13. bear — to put up with
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. bear — the animal
  16. cold — not warm
  17. plane — an aircraft
  18. plane — a tool
  19. wind — moving air
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. degree — temperature
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. bear — the animal
  24. cold — an illness

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