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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 · saw · club · face · bark · cold · mouse

  1. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. He works in a ________________ mill.
  5. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  6. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  7. She's very handy with a ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  12. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  13. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. cold — not warm
  3. club — for golf
  4. saw — the tool
  5. face — to confront
  6. mouse — the animal
  7. saw — the tool
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. club — a group
  10. band — a music group
  11. mouse — for a computer
  12. face — part of the head
  13. mouse — the animal
  14. wound — an injury
  15. face — to point toward
  16. wound — an injury
  17. bark — to shout
  18. saw — past of 'see'
  19. cold — an illness
  20. band — a ring
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. bark — a dog's sound
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. band — a rubber band

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