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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. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. He is an ace ________________.
  4. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  5. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  8. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  14. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. wind — moving air
  3. pitcher — in baseball
  4. hide — animal skin
  5. vault — a safe
  6. clip — a video
  7. hide — to keep secret
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. hand — in cards
  10. hand — help
  11. vault — an arched ceiling
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. vault — in gymnastics
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. wind — moving air
  16. clip — to cut
  17. land — to come down
  18. land — a country
  19. band — a music group
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. hide — to keep secret
  22. clip — for paper
  23. land — ground
  24. hand — part of the body

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