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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: cold · snap · last · wind · game · spell · band · hand

  1. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  13. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — a short time
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. last — final
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. spell — letters
  6. band — a ring
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. band — a music group
  9. game — wild animals
  10. last — to go on
  11. cold — not warm
  12. snap — to speak sharply
  13. snap — to click
  14. wind — moving air
  15. last — finally
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. cold — an illness
  18. wind — moving air
  19. snap — to snap out of it
  20. hand — help
  21. spell — magic
  22. hand — in cards
  23. game — a match
  24. game — a kind of play

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