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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: clip · squash · race · mate · capital · swing · rash · stick

  1. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  6. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  7. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  8. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  9. David sat on the ________________.
  10. Have you found your soul ________________?
  11. Don't do anything ________________.
  12. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  13. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  14. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  21. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  22. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  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. mate — to breed
  2. clip — to cut
  3. swing — music
  4. capital — money
  5. squash — the vegetable
  6. stick — a piece of wood
  7. race — a contest
  8. race — humankind
  9. swing — to play on
  10. mate — a partner
  11. rash — hasty
  12. stick — a piece of wood
  13. mate — a friend
  14. swing — in golf
  15. clip — for paper
  16. clip — a video
  17. stick — to attach or keep to
  18. capital — a city
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. squash — to crush
  21. rash — on the skin
  22. squash — the sport
  23. rash — a series
  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