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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 116 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: pound · hand · race · swing · wind · squash · game · cold

  1. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  14. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  15. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. David sat on the ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — part of the body
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. race — the arms race
  4. game — wild animals
  5. swing — music
  6. hand — help
  7. game — a match
  8. squash — the vegetable
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. race — a contest
  11. squash — to crush
  12. wind — moving air
  13. pound — to hit hard
  14. swing — in golf
  15. squash — the sport
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. swing — to play on
  18. cold — not warm
  19. cold — an illness
  20. race — humankind
  21. wind — moving air
  22. pound — a weight
  23. pound — for dogs
  24. hand — in cards

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