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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 still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  7. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  8. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. Did you ________________ the meat?

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. cap — a lid
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. bass — the fish
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. season — in sport
  7. cap — a hat
  8. bass — low music
  9. hand — in cards
  10. season — of the year
  11. hand — help
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. file — a document
  14. cap — of ice
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. file — a line of people
  19. bat — the animal
  20. band — a music group
  21. file — a tool
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. season — to add flavour

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