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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. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  5. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. My father caught me by the ________________.
  14. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. Have you settled on a ________________?
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  24. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.

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

Answer key

  1. date — the fruit
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. bark — of a tree
  5. rule — a law
  6. bark — to shout
  7. date — on the calendar
  8. clip — to cut
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. band — a music group
  11. band — a ring
  12. cold — an illness
  13. arm — part of the body
  14. arm — part of the body
  15. mine — for digging
  16. cold — not warm
  17. clip — for paper
  18. rule — to rule out
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. date — on the calendar
  22. clip — a video
  23. rule — government
  24. arm — a part of something

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