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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 belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  8. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  9. This piece is in a major ________________.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — a group
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. cold — not warm
  4. drill — the tool
  5. game — a match
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. drill — army training
  8. club — for dancing
  9. key — in music
  10. wound — an injury
  11. file — a document
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. key — the most important part
  14. game — wild animals
  15. key — for a lock
  16. band — a ring
  17. club — for golf
  18. band — a music group
  19. cold — an illness
  20. file — a tool
  21. drill — a practice
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. wound — an injury
  24. file — a line of people

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