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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: club · last · cold · shower · patient · ruler · band · stock

  1. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  2. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  3. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  4. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  5. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  10. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  11. False peace will not ________________.
  12. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  13. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. The ________________ market has crashed.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  21. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. stock — goods
  3. ruler — a monarch
  4. patient — a sick person
  5. patient — calm and waiting
  6. band — a music group
  7. shower — to wash
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. last — final
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. last — to go on
  12. club — for dancing
  13. ruler — for measuring
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. shower — rain
  16. stock — shares
  17. band — a ring
  18. club — a group
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. ruler — for measuring
  21. last — finally
  22. cold — an illness
  23. cold — the Cold War
  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