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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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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: ball · ground · band · rock · cold · hand · bark · arm

  1. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  2. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  3. The King held a masked ________________.
  4. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  7. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  20. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  21. My father caught me by the ________________.
  22. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — part of the body
  2. ball — a round shape
  3. ball — a dance
  4. rock — music
  5. band — a music group
  6. ground — crushed
  7. bark — of a tree
  8. hand — in cards
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. ball — a great time
  11. hand — help
  12. arm — a part of something
  13. cold — not warm
  14. bark — to shout
  15. ground — the earth
  16. band — a ring
  17. ground — a position
  18. cold — an illness
  19. rock — a stone
  20. arm — part of the body
  21. arm — part of the body
  22. rock — to move gently
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. band — a rubber band

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