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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  7. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  11. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. mine — for digging
  3. club — for golf
  4. cold — an illness
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. club — for dancing
  7. pound — for dogs
  8. cold — not warm
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. band — a rubber band
  11. club — a group
  12. band — a music group
  13. pound — to hit hard
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. racket — for tennis
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. row — a line
  19. racket — for tennis
  20. row — to paddle
  21. pound — a weight
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. racket — a loud noise

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