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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 120 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: cabinet · swing · wind · cap · clip · race · chest · degree

  1. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  2. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  3. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  4. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  9. What do you think of the new ________________?
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  19. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  23. David sat on the ________________.
  24. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cabinet — a cupboard
  2. cap — a lid
  3. race — humankind
  4. swing — music
  5. chest — of your body
  6. wind — moving air
  7. chest — of your body
  8. cap — a hat
  9. cabinet — ministers
  10. degree — from a university
  11. degree — an amount
  12. degree — temperature
  13. clip — for paper
  14. cap — of ice
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. chest — a box
  17. swing — in golf
  18. cabinet — ministers
  19. race — a contest
  20. clip — to cut
  21. clip — a video
  22. wind — moving air
  23. swing — to play on
  24. race — the arms race

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