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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: cabinet · row · sharp · cold · band · clip · can · kid

  1. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  4. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  9. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. It's one o'clock ________________.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. What do you think of the new ________________?
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  23. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. cold — an illness
  3. cabinet — ministers
  4. sharp — with an edge
  5. clip — to cut
  6. can — to be able to
  7. kid — to tease
  8. band — a ring
  9. can — a tin
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. sharp — exactly
  13. band — a music group
  14. cabinet — a cupboard
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. clip — a video
  17. cabinet — ministers
  18. clip — for paper
  19. row — to paddle
  20. kid — child
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. sharp — clever
  23. can — a tin
  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