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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: hand · cabinet · wound · kid · cold · band · chair · lean

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  5. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  24. What do you think of the new ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. wound — an injury
  3. hand — in cards
  4. lean — to bend
  5. lean — to rest against
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. kid — child
  8. cabinet — ministers
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. wound — an injury
  11. hand — help
  12. band — a ring
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. band — a music group
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. cold — an illness
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. cold — not warm
  20. lean — thin
  21. chair — a leader
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. cabinet — a cupboard
  24. cabinet — ministers

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