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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: rule · tube · key · drill · cold · band · mine · degree

  1. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. I'll be taking the ________________.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. This piece is in a major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — a law
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. band — a ring
  4. cold — an illness
  5. tube — in a tire
  6. band — a music group
  7. tube — the underground
  8. degree — temperature
  9. key — the most important part
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. cold — not warm
  12. rule — to rule out
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. rule — government
  15. degree — from a university
  16. drill — the tool
  17. drill — a practice
  18. drill — army training
  19. tube — a container
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. mine — for digging
  22. key — for a lock
  23. degree — an amount
  24. key — in music

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