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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: wind · clip · cold · rash · race · pit

  1. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  4. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Don't do anything ________________.
  13. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a hole
  2. wind — moving air
  3. race — a contest
  4. pit — a fruit stone
  5. clip — a video
  6. rash — a series
  7. clip — to cut
  8. cold — an illness
  9. pit — in a race
  10. race — the arms race
  11. clip — for paper
  12. rash — hasty
  13. race — humankind
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. wind — moving air
  16. rash — on the skin
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. cold — not warm

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