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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: hand · clip · toast · mine · pound · date · mark · cold

  1. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  4. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  5. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  11. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  19. Have you settled on a ________________?
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  24. She got the top ________________ in the exam.

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

Answer key

  1. date — the fruit
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. toast — the most admired
  4. pound — for dogs
  5. mark — to pay attention
  6. cold — an illness
  7. pound — a weight
  8. cold — not warm
  9. clip — to cut
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. toast — a drink to someone
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. hand — help
  15. toast — bread
  16. hand — in cards
  17. mine — for digging
  18. pound — to hit hard
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. clip — for paper
  21. clip — a video
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. mark — a trace
  24. mark — a grade

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