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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: race · mate · cold · band · kick · swing

  1. David sat on the ________________.
  2. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  3. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  6. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  9. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  10. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — to play on
  2. mate — to breed
  3. race — humankind
  4. band — a music group
  5. mate — a friend
  6. kick — a thrill
  7. band — a ring
  8. race — the arms race
  9. swing — in golf
  10. swing — music
  11. mate — a partner
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. cold — not warm
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. kick — with a leg
  16. race — a contest
  17. cold — an illness
  18. kick — in football

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