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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 · can · game · spring · swing · tube · hand · cold

  1. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  3. That was a fun ________________.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. David sat on the ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  22. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  23. I'll be taking the ________________.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. can — a tin
  3. game — a match
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. spring — the season
  6. swing — to play on
  7. cold — not warm
  8. cold — an illness
  9. swing — music
  10. band — a ring
  11. hand — in cards
  12. spring — of water
  13. spring — a coil
  14. can — a tin
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. can — to be able to
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. game — wild animals
  21. swing — in golf
  22. tube — a container
  23. tube — the underground
  24. hand — help

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