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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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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: hide · coach · clip · pound · rash · kid · band · content

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  6. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Have you met the new head ________________?
  10. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  13. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  16. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  22. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  23. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. rash — hasty
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. kid — child
  5. hide — animal skin
  6. rash — a series
  7. clip — a video
  8. clip — to cut
  9. coach — a trainer
  10. pound — a weight
  11. content — the amount
  12. pound — for dogs
  13. hide — to keep secret
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. pound — to hit hard
  16. coach — pulled by horses
  17. band — a ring
  18. clip — for paper
  19. band — a music group
  20. kid — to tease
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. hide — to keep secret
  23. rash — on the skin
  24. content — videos and posts

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