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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  6. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. David sat on the ________________.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  19. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  20. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  23. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. kid — to tease
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. band — a music group
  5. pitch — a sales talk
  6. bank — of a river
  7. chest — of your body
  8. band — a ring
  9. tube — the underground
  10. swing — to play on
  11. tube — a container
  12. chest — of your body
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. chest — a box
  15. clip — a video
  16. pitch — a sports field
  17. clip — to cut
  18. bank — for money
  19. bank — for money
  20. pitch — completely
  21. swing — music
  22. tube — in a tire
  23. swing — in golf
  24. kid — child

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