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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 · march · present · tear · cabinet · band · clip · club

  1. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. What do you think of the new ________________?
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  17. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  18. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  23. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. band — a music group
  3. cabinet — ministers
  4. band — a ring
  5. swing — to play on
  6. clip — to cut
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. club — for golf
  9. tear — to rip
  10. tear — from crying
  11. cabinet — ministers
  12. tear — from crying
  13. swing — in golf
  14. march — the month
  15. clip — for paper
  16. swing — music
  17. club — a group
  18. present — the time now
  19. clip — a video
  20. cabinet — a cupboard
  21. march — the month
  22. present — there
  23. present — a gift
  24. march — music

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