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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: kid · wound · wax · cold · prune · bowl · field · swing

  1. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  2. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. David sat on the ________________.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  13. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  22. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — in golf
  2. swing — music
  3. cold — an illness
  4. prune — to trim
  5. wound — an injury
  6. field — a subject
  7. kid — to tease
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. swing — to play on
  11. kid — child
  12. bowl — to roll
  13. bowl — a dish
  14. field — farmland
  15. wax — in the ear
  16. field — for sport
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. wound — an injury
  19. prune — to trim
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. wax — for sculpting
  22. bowl — a football final
  23. cold — not warm
  24. wax — to grow

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