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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. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  2. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. We're almost out of ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  15. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. You don't need to ________________ round.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a rubber band
  2. cap — a hat
  3. band — a ring
  4. cap — of ice
  5. march — the month
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. drill — a practice
  10. pop — soda
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. band — a music group
  13. march — the month
  14. drill — army training
  15. drill — the tool
  16. kid — to tease
  17. pop — to visit
  18. march — music
  19. pop — music
  20. kid — child
  21. bat — the animal
  22. cap — a lid
  23. mine — for digging
  24. bat — for baseball

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