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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: race · toast · bank · cold · clip · mark · hand · swing

  1. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  7. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  8. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  9. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. David sat on the ________________.
  14. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  15. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  16. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  24. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. race — a contest
  2. cold — an illness
  3. swing — music
  4. clip — for paper
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. mark — a trace
  7. swing — in golf
  8. toast — a drink to someone
  9. mark — to pay attention
  10. hand — help
  11. toast — bread
  12. race — the arms race
  13. swing — to play on
  14. bank — of a river
  15. toast — the most admired
  16. bank — for money
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. clip — to cut
  19. hand — in cards
  20. mark — a grade
  21. clip — a video
  22. cold — not warm
  23. bank — for money
  24. race — humankind

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