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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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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: cell · rock · march · band · spring · tear · kid · straw

  1. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  11. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  12. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. I don't want to ________________ the boat.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. tear — from crying
  3. kid — to tease
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. kid — child
  6. cell — a phone
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. march — music
  10. rock — a stone
  11. band — a ring
  12. march — the month
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. rock — music
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. tear — from crying
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. spring — of water
  19. march — the month
  20. tear — to rip
  21. spring — the season
  22. cell — in biology
  23. spring — a coil
  24. rock — to move gently

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