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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. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  2. He is an ace ________________.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  5. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a rubber band
  2. pitcher — in baseball
  3. band — a music group
  4. wave — a sudden rise
  5. wave — of the sea
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. band — a ring
  8. court — for sport
  9. court — of a king
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. spring — the season
  13. court — of law
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. bat — the animal
  17. wave — with your hand
  18. spring — of water
  19. file — a document
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. spring — a coil
  22. file — a line of people
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. file — a tool

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