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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 still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  3. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  9. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. Did you ________________ the meat?
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. hide — animal skin
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. cold — an illness
  5. bark — to shout
  6. kid — to tease
  7. capital — a city
  8. bark — a dog's sound
  9. hide — to keep secret
  10. land — to come down
  11. cold — not warm
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. band — a music group
  15. season — to add flavour
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. season — in sport
  18. kid — child
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. land — a country
  21. land — ground
  22. season — of the year
  23. capital — money
  24. cold — the Cold War

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