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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's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  5. The light ________________ burned out.
  6. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  7. I've got to change the light ________________.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. bass — the instrument
  3. kid — to tease
  4. wave — with your hand
  5. bulb — for light
  6. prune — to trim
  7. bulb — for light
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. band — a ring
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. bass — low music
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. wave — a sudden rise
  15. prune — to trim
  16. wave — of the sea
  17. kid — child
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. cold — an illness
  21. bulb — of a plant
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. bass — the fish
  24. cold — not warm

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