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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: tear · band · straw · cold · clip · pit · charge · ball

  1. The tickets are free of ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  9. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. The King held a masked ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  24. Where can I ________________ my mobile?

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

Answer key

  1. charge — a price
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. band — a music group
  5. band — a ring
  6. ball — a great time
  7. clip — for paper
  8. pit — in a race
  9. pit — a fruit stone
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. charge — in control
  12. clip — to cut
  13. tear — from crying
  14. clip — a video
  15. ball — a round shape
  16. tear — from crying
  17. cold — not warm
  18. tear — to rip
  19. ball — a dance
  20. cold — an illness
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. pit — a hole
  24. charge — electricity

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