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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  7. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  12. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  13. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. band — a ring
  3. cold — an illness
  4. hand — help
  5. swing — to play on
  6. hand — in cards
  7. bowl — to roll
  8. game — a match
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. kid — child
  11. bowl — a football final
  12. swing — music
  13. band — a rubber band
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. swing — in golf
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. perch — the fish
  20. game — wild animals
  21. kid — to tease
  22. band — a music group
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. bowl — a dish

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