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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: band · nail · mine · chest · pitcher · current · tear · wound

  1. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. He is an ace ________________.
  9. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. The ________________ went through the wall.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  20. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. mine — for digging
  3. tear — to rip
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. wound — an injury
  6. chest — of your body
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. pitcher — in baseball
  9. current — happening now
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. band — a music group
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. nail — for a hammer
  14. wound — an injury
  15. nail — for a hammer
  16. band — a ring
  17. chest — of your body
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. current — of water
  20. nail — on a finger
  21. tear — from crying
  22. chest — a box
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. current — electric

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