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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: cold · fan · band · wax · march · firm · prune · land

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  5. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  6. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  15. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  18. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  19. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  20. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  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 ring
  2. firm — steady
  3. cold — an illness
  4. wax — to grow
  5. firm — a company
  6. wax — for sculpting
  7. prune — to trim
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. land — ground
  11. march — music
  12. firm — decided
  13. land — to come down
  14. fan — to cool the air
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. cold — not warm
  17. prune — to trim
  18. march — the month
  19. fan — a supporter
  20. wax — in the ear
  21. band — a music group
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. march — the month
  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