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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 116 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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. Have you met the new head ________________?
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  6. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  9. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. The ________________ took off on time.
  14. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  15. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  16. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  20. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. last — final
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. scale — in music
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. cold — an illness
  8. coach — pulled by horses
  9. plane — in geometry
  10. band — a music group
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. plane — an aircraft
  14. present — there
  15. present — a gift
  16. present — the time now
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. cold — not warm
  19. plane — a tool
  20. scale — for weighing
  21. last — to go on
  22. scale — size or range
  23. last — finally
  24. cold — the Cold War

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