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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: drill · land · season · chest · content · wound · band · mine

  1. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  21. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. content — happy
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. drill — the tool
  6. land — to come down
  7. band — a music group
  8. content — the amount
  9. wound — an injury
  10. band — a ring
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. chest — of your body
  13. chest — of your body
  14. mine — for digging
  15. land — a country
  16. drill — army training
  17. chest — a box
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. season — of the year
  21. season — in sport
  22. land — ground
  23. wound — an injury
  24. drill — a practice

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