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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: kick · land · band · wax · cold · cap · chest · kid

  1. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  9. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  10. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  11. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  17. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  18. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. cold — not warm
  3. chest — a box
  4. wax — in the ear
  5. kid — to tease
  6. land — to come down
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. cap — a hat
  9. kick — in football
  10. kick — a thrill
  11. cap — of ice
  12. chest — of your body
  13. cap — a lid
  14. kid — child
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. band — a rubber band
  17. wax — for sculpting
  18. wax — to grow
  19. land — ground
  20. cold — an illness
  21. band — a ring
  22. kick — with a leg
  23. chest — of your body
  24. land — a country

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