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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: band · lean · swing · spell · content · cold · hand · snap

  1. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  11. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  12. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  13. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  18. David sat on the ________________.
  19. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. lean — to bend
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. swing — in golf
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. cold — an illness
  7. spell — letters
  8. lean — to rest against
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. spell — magic
  11. spell — a short time
  12. band — a ring
  13. lean — thin
  14. cold — not warm
  15. content — the amount
  16. hand — help
  17. snap — to click
  18. swing — to play on
  19. snap — to speak sharply
  20. swing — music
  21. band — a music group
  22. content — happy
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. hand — in cards

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