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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: band · kick · snap · bulb · swing · straw · race · file

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  3. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  4. David sat on the ________________.
  5. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. I've got to change the light ________________.
  12. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  13. The light ________________ burned out.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. snap — to speak sharply
  3. race — the arms race
  4. swing — to play on
  5. snap — to snap out of it
  6. snap — to click
  7. kick — in football
  8. file — a line of people
  9. kick — with a leg
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. bulb — for light
  12. band — a rubber band
  13. bulb — for light
  14. file — a document
  15. kick — a thrill
  16. race — humankind
  17. band — a music group
  18. swing — in golf
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. race — a contest
  21. file — a tool
  22. bulb — of a plant
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. swing — music

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