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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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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: tube · cold · court · wind · lash · rash · root · band

  1. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  8. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. I'll be taking the ________________.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  19. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  20. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  21. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. band — a ring
  3. court — of a king
  4. lash — a whip stroke
  5. cold — not warm
  6. wind — moving air
  7. root — the cause
  8. rash — on the skin
  9. wind — moving air
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. court — of law
  12. lash — to lash out
  13. cold — an illness
  14. rash — hasty
  15. court — for sport
  16. tube — the underground
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. root — of a plant
  19. rash — a series
  20. lash — an eyelash
  21. root — of a word
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. tube — a container
  24. cold — the Cold War

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