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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. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  2. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  14. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. The old man leaned on his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — in biology
  2. band — a music group
  3. cold — not warm
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. cell — a phone
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. clip — for paper
  8. clip — to cut
  9. wound — an injury
  10. band — a ring
  11. staff — employees
  12. clip — a video
  13. band — a rubber band
  14. staff — employees
  15. cold — an illness
  16. hand — help
  17. march — the month
  18. hand — in cards
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. wound — an injury
  21. march — music
  22. march — the month
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. staff — a stick

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