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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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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. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  5. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  6. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  11. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. hand — in cards
  3. shower — to wash
  4. tube — in a tire
  5. ground — crushed
  6. branch — of a bank
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. shower — rain
  9. land — ground
  10. ground — the earth
  11. band — a music group
  12. ground — a position
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. land — a country
  16. land — to come down
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. hand — help
  19. tube — a container
  20. branch — of a tree
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. tube — the underground
  23. branch — a division
  24. mine — for digging

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