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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: club · clip · suit · rule · cold · content · race · mark

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  3. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  4. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  7. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  13. When will it ________________ you to start?
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. mark — a trace
  3. mark — a grade
  4. rule — government
  5. clip — for paper
  6. club — for golf
  7. rule — a law
  8. clip — to cut
  9. content — happy
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. clip — a video
  12. mark — to pay attention
  13. suit — to fit
  14. race — a contest
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. suit — clothes
  17. race — humankind
  18. rule — to rule out
  19. cold — not warm
  20. suit — in cards
  21. content — the amount
  22. club — for dancing
  23. race — the arms race
  24. club — a group

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