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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 120 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: board · clip · rest · bat · arm · drill · swing · cold

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  7. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  8. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  14. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  15. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  16. My father caught me by the ________________.
  17. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  20. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. drill — the tool
  3. swing — to play on
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. clip — to cut
  6. rest — a break
  7. arm — a part of something
  8. rest — what's left
  9. clip — a video
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. bat — the animal
  12. drill — a practice
  13. board — a flat piece
  14. drill — army training
  15. rest — what's left
  16. arm — part of the body
  17. swing — music
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. board — a committee
  20. board — to get on
  21. cold — not warm
  22. clip — for paper
  23. swing — in golf
  24. cold — the Cold War

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