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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: chest · pound · cap · band · march · racket · cold · scale

  1. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  6. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  9. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  10. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  11. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  12. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  13. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  14. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. racket — a loud noise
  2. march — the month
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. band — a ring
  5. cap — a hat
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. chest — a box
  8. pound — to hit hard
  9. band — a music group
  10. scale — size or range
  11. scale — in music
  12. cap — a lid
  13. racket — for tennis
  14. pound — a weight
  15. march — the month
  16. cold — not warm
  17. march — music
  18. chest — of your body
  19. chest — of your body
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. cap — of ice
  22. cold — an illness
  23. pound — for dogs
  24. scale — for weighing

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