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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 116 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: band · deal · prune · bear · cold · fall · snap · game

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  3. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  6. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  13. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  20. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  21. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. bear — to put up with
  3. deal — a big deal
  4. prune — to trim
  5. deal — an agreement
  6. prune — to trim
  7. cold — not warm
  8. fall — to drop
  9. game — a match
  10. band — a music group
  11. fall — to drop
  12. snap — to speak sharply
  13. bear — the animal
  14. snap — to click
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. game — wild animals
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. fall — the season
  20. deal — to handle
  21. bear — the animal
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. cold — an illness

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