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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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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: band · mine · cold · branch · kid · face · bear · ball

  1. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. The King held a masked ________________.
  12. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  13. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  14. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  20. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. ball — a great time
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. cold — an illness
  6. kid — child
  7. branch — of a bank
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. face — part of the head
  10. band — a ring
  11. ball — a dance
  12. bear — to put up with
  13. bear — the animal
  14. branch — a division
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. bear — the animal
  17. band — a music group
  18. kid — to tease
  19. ball — a round shape
  20. face — to confront
  21. face — to point toward
  22. cold — not warm
  23. mine — for digging
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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