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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's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  12. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  13. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  22. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. spring — the season
  3. hand — help
  4. clip — for paper
  5. clip — to cut
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. mine — for digging
  8. spring — a coil
  9. band — a ring
  10. hand — in cards
  11. pitch — completely
  12. pitch — a sales talk
  13. band — a rubber band
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. row — to paddle
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. object — a thing
  18. row — a line
  19. object — to protest
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. object — an aim
  22. pitch — a sports field
  23. spring — of water
  24. clip — a video

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