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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: content · pitch · cold · fan · row · snap · band · mate

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  8. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  11. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  12. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  19. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. Have you found your soul ________________?
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. mate — to breed
  4. cold — an illness
  5. band — a music group
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. snap — to click
  9. row — a line
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. mate — a friend
  12. fan — to cool the air
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. content — happy
  16. pitch — a sales talk
  17. content — the amount
  18. pitch — completely
  19. pitch — a sports field
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. row — to paddle
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. mate — a partner
  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