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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: snap · cell · pound · clip · band · wake · lie · cold

  1. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  2. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  3. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  19. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a rubber band
  2. lie — to recline
  3. pound — a weight
  4. band — a music group
  5. lie — an untruth
  6. snap — to click
  7. cold — an illness
  8. pound — for dogs
  9. band — a ring
  10. cell — in biology
  11. clip — a video
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. lie — an untruth
  16. clip — to cut
  17. cell — a phone
  18. pound — to hit hard
  19. wake — to stop sleeping
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. wake — a trail
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. clip — for paper
  24. cold — not warm

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