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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: ruler · clip · ball · rest · band · cold · hand · track

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  4. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  5. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  6. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  7. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  8. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  9. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  15. The King held a masked ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  22. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The people resisted their cruel ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. cold — not warm
  3. track — a path
  4. track — a song
  5. ball — a great time
  6. ball — a round shape
  7. rest — what's left
  8. ruler — for measuring
  9. track — to keep track
  10. band — a music group
  11. clip — a video
  12. rest — a break
  13. hand — help
  14. band — a ring
  15. ball — a dance
  16. clip — for paper
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. clip — to cut
  19. hand — in cards
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. ruler — for measuring
  22. rest — what's left
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. ruler — a monarch

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