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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: rash · cold · wind · patient · swing · row · lean · band

  1. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  6. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. Don't do anything ________________.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  14. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — thin
  2. wind — moving air
  3. swing — to play on
  4. band — a ring
  5. rash — a series
  6. rash — on the skin
  7. row — a line
  8. rash — hasty
  9. wind — moving air
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. cold — an illness
  13. lean — to rest against
  14. patient — calm and waiting
  15. band — a music group
  16. swing — music
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. lean — to bend
  19. row — to paddle
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. cold — not warm
  22. swing — in golf
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. wind — to turn a key

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