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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: cold · wound · swing · prune · ball · deal · content · roll

  1. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  4. David sat on the ________________.
  5. We're on a ________________ here.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  16. The King held a masked ________________.
  17. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. cold — not warm
  3. ball — a round shape
  4. swing — to play on
  5. roll — on a roll
  6. content — happy
  7. prune — to trim
  8. wound — an injury
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. deal — a big deal
  11. prune — to trim
  12. cold — an illness
  13. roll — a cake
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. deal — to handle
  16. ball — a dance
  17. roll — a list
  18. wound — an injury
  19. swing — in golf
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. deal — an agreement
  22. swing — music
  23. content — the amount
  24. content — videos and posts

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