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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. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  7. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. Have you found your soul ________________?
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  24. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. mate — to breed
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. file — a line of people
  6. mate — a friend
  7. bark — of a tree
  8. kid — to tease
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. band — a ring
  11. row — a line
  12. hand — in cards
  13. kid — child
  14. perch — the fish
  15. mate — a partner
  16. row — to paddle
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. file — a tool
  19. bark — to shout
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. hand — help
  22. file — a document
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. bark — a dog's sound

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