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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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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: season · mine · cold · band · kid · racket · rule · file

  1. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  15. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  16. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  17. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  20. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. mine — for digging
  3. cold — an illness
  4. file — a tool
  5. band — a music group
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. rule — a law
  9. band — a ring
  10. kid — to tease
  11. file — a line of people
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. kid — child
  14. racket — for tennis
  15. racket — a loud noise
  16. racket — for tennis
  17. rule — government
  18. cold — not warm
  19. season — of the year
  20. season — in sport
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. file — a document
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. rule — to rule out

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