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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: swing · lash · clip · spring · hide · cold · leaves · rule

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  6. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  7. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  8. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  12. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  13. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  16. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. David sat on the ________________.
  19. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  20. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. We have nothing to ________________ here.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. clip — for paper
  4. spring — the season
  5. lash — a whip stroke
  6. lash — an eyelash
  7. rule — government
  8. lash — to lash out
  9. clip — a video
  10. spring — a coil
  11. rule — to rule out
  12. leaves — lets stay
  13. leaves — of a tree
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. rule — a law
  16. leaves — to go away
  17. spring — of water
  18. swing — to play on
  19. swing — in golf
  20. hide — animal skin
  21. clip — to cut
  22. swing — music
  23. cold — an illness
  24. hide — to keep secret

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