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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: cold · stand · land · kick · date · band · fan · wind

  1. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  2. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  3. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. Have you settled on a ________________?
  11. I can't ________________ this cold.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  16. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  17. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  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. wind — to turn a key
  2. fan — to cool the air
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. wind — moving air
  6. cold — an illness
  7. date — on the calendar
  8. land — a country
  9. wind — moving air
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. stand — to bear
  12. land — to come down
  13. cold — not warm
  14. band — a music group
  15. kick — in football
  16. stand — on your feet
  17. stand — for spectators
  18. band — a ring
  19. date — the fruit
  20. land — ground
  21. kick — with a leg
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. fan — a supporter
  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