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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: mine · cold · fan · band · stock · arm · land · field

  1. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. My father caught me by the ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — a part of something
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. band — a ring
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. stock — shares
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. fan — to cool the air
  10. cold — an illness
  11. field — for sport
  12. stock — goods
  13. arm — part of the body
  14. band — a music group
  15. land — to come down
  16. mine — for digging
  17. land — a country
  18. field — farmland
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. field — a subject
  21. cold — not warm
  22. land — ground
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. band — a rubber band

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