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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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468
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: spring · row · swing · track · cold · pass · clip · safe

  1. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  2. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  11. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  12. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  16. David sat on the ________________.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. He has no idea where the ________________ is.

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

Answer key

  1. safe — out of danger
  2. pass — to succeed
  3. row — a line
  4. cold — an illness
  5. clip — a video
  6. clip — to cut
  7. clip — for paper
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. spring — a coil
  10. track — a song
  11. safe — out of danger
  12. pass — to spend time
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. spring — the season
  15. track — a path
  16. swing — to play on
  17. row — to paddle
  18. swing — in golf
  19. track — to keep track
  20. spring — of water
  21. pass — a permit
  22. cold — not warm
  23. swing — music
  24. safe — a strongbox

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