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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: cold · chest · prune · fan · bass · bark · rash · band

  1. Don't do anything ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  4. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  10. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. bass — the fish
  5. cold — an illness
  6. bass — the instrument
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. chest — of your body
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. rash — on the skin
  11. cold — not warm
  12. chest — of your body
  13. rash — a series
  14. bark — to shout
  15. fan — to cool the air
  16. prune — to trim
  17. band — a ring
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. bark — of a tree
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. prune — to trim
  22. band — a music group
  23. chest — a box
  24. bass — low music

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