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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: content · fall · march · pop · land · wind · bat · band

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. We're almost out of ________________.
  24. 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. land — ground
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. content — happy
  4. content — the amount
  5. march — music
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. bat — the animal
  8. pop — to visit
  9. pop — music
  10. land — to come down
  11. fall — the season
  12. wind — moving air
  13. wind — moving air
  14. land — a country
  15. fall — to drop
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. march — the month
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. march — the month
  20. fall — to drop
  21. band — a ring
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. pop — soda
  24. 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