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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: wound · band · rash · club · bear · cold · pit · land

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  3. Don't do anything ________________.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  6. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  12. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  13. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  14. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  15. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  20. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. I seem to be developing a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. club — for dancing
  3. rash — hasty
  4. land — ground
  5. club — a group
  6. pit — a hole
  7. cold — an illness
  8. wound — an injury
  9. land — a country
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. pit — a fruit stone
  12. rash — a series
  13. bear — to put up with
  14. club — for golf
  15. bear — the animal
  16. land — to come down
  17. cold — not warm
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. bear — the animal
  20. pit — in a race
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. wound — an injury
  23. band — a music group
  24. rash — on the skin

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