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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: land · scale · band · snap · present · tube · cold · stand

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  12. I can't ________________ this cold.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  18. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  19. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. band — a ring
  3. snap — to click
  4. tube — a container
  5. land — ground
  6. cold — an illness
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. tube — in a tire
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. present — there
  12. stand — to bear
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. present — the time now
  15. scale — size or range
  16. land — to come down
  17. scale — in music
  18. stand — for spectators
  19. band — a music group
  20. land — a country
  21. present — a gift
  22. tube — the underground
  23. stand — on your feet
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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