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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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Word bank
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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: march · last · mine · court · race · bark · rash · band

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. Don't do anything ________________.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  18. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. race — humankind
  3. last — final
  4. rash — on the skin
  5. race — a contest
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. court — of law
  9. rash — hasty
  10. court — of a king
  11. court — for sport
  12. last — to go on
  13. march — the month
  14. band — a music group
  15. bark — to shout
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. rash — a series
  18. march — the month
  19. last — finally
  20. march — music
  21. race — the arms race
  22. mine — for digging
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. bark — of a tree

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