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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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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: hand · tear · game · kid · wound · band · land · roll

  1. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. We're on a ________________ here.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. roll — a cake
  2. hand — in cards
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. wound — an injury
  5. land — to come down
  6. band — a music group
  7. band — a ring
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. roll — on a roll
  10. tear — from crying
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. hand — help
  13. roll — a list
  14. kid — child
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. land — a country
  17. game — wild animals
  18. kid — to tease
  19. tear — to rip
  20. game — a match
  21. land — ground
  22. wound — an injury
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. tear — from crying

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