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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: cold · craft · clip · wound · snap · race · rest · row

  1. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  2. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  3. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  19. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. craft — boats
  2. row — to paddle
  3. rest — what's left
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. row — a line
  7. craft — a skill
  8. cold — not warm
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. clip — a video
  11. race — a contest
  12. clip — for paper
  13. race — the arms race
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. race — humankind
  16. rest — a break
  17. cold — an illness
  18. craft — a handicraft
  19. snap — to click
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. clip — to cut
  22. wound — an injury
  23. rest — what's left
  24. wound — an injury

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