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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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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: drill · tear · cap · row · bat · band · ground · cold

  1. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  6. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — the tool
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. row — to paddle
  5. cap — a hat
  6. cap — a lid
  7. tear — from crying
  8. ground — crushed
  9. cold — not warm
  10. bat — the animal
  11. row — a line
  12. band — a music group
  13. drill — army training
  14. cold — an illness
  15. drill — a practice
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. tear — to rip
  18. cap — of ice
  19. ground — the earth
  20. tear — from crying
  21. band — a ring
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. ground — a position
  24. row — a quarrel

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