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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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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: band · board · kid · last · shower · cold · pound · snap

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  5. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  13. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  20. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  21. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  22. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. kid — child
  3. snap — to click
  4. pound — for dogs
  5. board — to get on
  6. shower — to wash
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. kid — to tease
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. last — to go on
  11. cold — not warm
  12. last — final
  13. board — a committee
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. cold — an illness
  16. shower — rain
  17. band — a music group
  18. band — a ring
  19. snap — to snap out of it
  20. board — a flat piece
  21. pound — a weight
  22. pound — to hit hard
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. last — finally

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