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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: kid · scale · swing · cold · band · mine · cue · content

  1. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. David sat on the ________________.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  11. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  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. cue — a hint
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. kid — to tease
  4. swing — to play on
  5. band — a ring
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. scale — size or range
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. cold — not warm
  10. swing — music
  11. cue — for pool
  12. content — the amount
  13. mine — for digging
  14. kid — child
  15. cold — an illness
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. content — happy
  18. scale — in music
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. cue — a signal
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. swing — in golf
  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