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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: clip · squash · race · mate · capital · swing

  1. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. David sat on the ________________.
  7. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  8. Have you found your soul ________________?
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  12. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  13. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.

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

Answer key

  1. race — a contest
  2. squash — the sport
  3. capital — a city
  4. mate — to breed
  5. race — the arms race
  6. swing — to play on
  7. swing — music
  8. mate — a partner
  9. clip — a video
  10. clip — to cut
  11. swing — in golf
  12. race — humankind
  13. mate — a friend
  14. clip — for paper
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. squash — to crush
  17. capital — money
  18. squash — the vegetable

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