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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  5. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  10. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  17. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  18. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  19. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. mine — for digging
  4. can — to be able to
  5. rule — a law
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. band — a ring
  8. kid — to tease
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. rule — government
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. cold — an illness
  13. march — the month
  14. rule — to rule out
  15. march — the month
  16. mine — belonging to me
  17. can — a tin
  18. patient — calm and waiting
  19. band — a music group
  20. kid — child
  21. can — a tin
  22. march — music
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. patient — a sick person

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