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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: game · swing · press · cold · bowl · tear · spell · wound

  1. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  5. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. Did you ________________ the button?
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. David sat on the ________________.
  24. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. bowl — a football final
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. spell — magic
  5. bowl — to roll
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. swing — in golf
  8. spell — a short time
  9. cold — an illness
  10. spell — letters
  11. press — to push
  12. tear — to rip
  13. game — a match
  14. press — newspapers
  15. tear — from crying
  16. cold — not warm
  17. bowl — a dish
  18. swing — music
  19. tear — from crying
  20. game — wild animals
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. wound — an injury
  23. swing — to play on
  24. press — a publisher

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