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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: clip · swing · craft · chest · band · current · hand · roll

  1. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  7. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. We're on a ________________ here.
  13. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  14. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  23. David sat on the ________________.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. clip — a video
  3. roll — a cake
  4. hand — in cards
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. current — happening now
  7. craft — boats
  8. clip — to cut
  9. current — of water
  10. clip — for paper
  11. chest — a box
  12. roll — on a roll
  13. roll — a list
  14. craft — a skill
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. band — a music group
  17. swing — in golf
  18. band — a ring
  19. craft — a handicraft
  20. hand — help
  21. swing — music
  22. current — electric
  23. swing — to play on
  24. chest — of your body

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