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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: cap · swing · hand · content · game · band · pitcher · drill

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. He is an ace ________________.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  6. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  7. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  8. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  9. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  10. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  11. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  15. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  19. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. David sat on the ________________.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. pitcher — in baseball
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. band — a ring
  5. drill — the tool
  6. hand — in cards
  7. cap — a lid
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. cap — a hat
  10. swing — in golf
  11. cap — of ice
  12. game — a match
  13. content — happy
  14. content — the amount
  15. drill — army training
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. drill — a practice
  18. game — wild animals
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. band — a music group
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. swing — music
  23. swing — to play on
  24. game — a kind of play

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