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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: plane · cold · board · spring · mine · kid · pound · band

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  6. The ________________ took off on time.
  7. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  10. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. board — to get on
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. spring — a coil
  5. pound — a weight
  6. plane — an aircraft
  7. board — a flat piece
  8. kid — child
  9. board — a committee
  10. mine — for digging
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. pound — for dogs
  14. band — a music group
  15. plane — in geometry
  16. band — a ring
  17. spring — the season
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. plane — a tool
  20. kid — to tease
  21. pound — to hit hard
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. spring — of water
  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