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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 put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  2. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. The ________________ took off on time.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  12. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  16. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  17. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a rubber band
  2. swing — in golf
  3. content — happy
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. swing — to play on
  6. clip — for paper
  7. plane — an aircraft
  8. cell — a phone
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. pit — a fruit stone
  12. band — a ring
  13. clip — to cut
  14. cell — in biology
  15. plane — in geometry
  16. plane — a tool
  17. pit — a hole
  18. band — a music group
  19. bat — the animal
  20. content — the amount
  21. pit — in a race
  22. swing — music
  23. clip — a video
  24. bat — in an idiom

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