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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: rest · current · bark · cold · band · drill · tear · game

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  14. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  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. cold — not warm
  2. rest — a break
  3. tear — to rip
  4. game — wild animals
  5. band — a music group
  6. tear — from crying
  7. rest — what's left
  8. drill — the tool
  9. game — a match
  10. band — a ring
  11. tear — from crying
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. current — of water
  14. drill — army training
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. rest — what's left
  17. bark — to shout
  18. current — happening now
  19. cold — an illness
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. drill — a practice
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. current — electric
  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