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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: swing · prune · last · arm · cold · rest · content · race

  1. False peace will not ________________.
  2. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  3. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. My father caught me by the ________________.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  16. David sat on the ________________.
  17. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  18. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  21. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  22. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. swing — in golf
  3. rest — what's left
  4. cold — not warm
  5. arm — part of the body
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. cold — an illness
  8. last — final
  9. race — a contest
  10. content — the amount
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. arm — part of the body
  14. content — happy
  15. arm — a part of something
  16. swing — to play on
  17. swing — music
  18. rest — what's left
  19. race — humankind
  20. rest — a break
  21. prune — to trim
  22. prune — to trim
  23. race — the arms race
  24. last — finally

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