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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: tear · band · bark · chest · fan · wound

  1. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  2. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  3. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a rubber band
  2. fan — to cool the air
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. chest — a box
  5. wound — an injury
  6. band — a ring
  7. chest — of your body
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. tear — from crying
  10. bark — to shout
  11. chest — of your body
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. tear — to rip
  16. wound — an injury
  17. tear — from crying
  18. band — a music group

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