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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: mate · spring · band · clip · kid · staff · dip · cold

  1. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. Have you found your soul ________________?
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — to breed
  2. staff — employees
  3. cold — an illness
  4. mate — a friend
  5. spring — the season
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. staff — a stick
  8. kid — child
  9. staff — employees
  10. band — a ring
  11. clip — for paper
  12. cold — not warm
  13. dip — a sauce
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. band — a music group
  17. mate — a partner
  18. kid — to tease
  19. clip — a video
  20. clip — to cut
  21. spring — of water
  22. dip — to dunk
  23. spring — a coil
  24. dip — to sink

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