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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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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: firm · band · wound · cold · plane · foot · bowl · row

  1. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The ________________ took off on time.
  5. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  6. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  7. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  11. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  12. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  13. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  20. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. firm — a company
  2. band — a ring
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. plane — an aircraft
  5. firm — decided
  6. bowl — a dish
  7. bowl — to roll
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. cold — not warm
  10. firm — steady
  11. foot — the bottom
  12. plane — a tool
  13. plane — in geometry
  14. cold — an illness
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. foot — part of the body
  17. wound — an injury
  18. row — a line
  19. foot — a measure
  20. bowl — a football final
  21. band — a music group
  22. wound — an injury
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. row — to paddle

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