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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: clip · kid · bank · game · row · swing

  1. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  5. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. David sat on the ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. bank — for money
  2. kid — to tease
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. swing — music
  5. bank — for money
  6. row — a line
  7. game — a match
  8. game — wild animals
  9. clip — for paper
  10. bank — of a river
  11. clip — to cut
  12. swing — to play on
  13. clip — a video
  14. swing — in golf
  15. kid — child
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. row — to paddle

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