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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: wound · content · bat · sharp · clip · swing · mark · cold

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  4. It's one o'clock ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. David sat on the ________________.
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. clip — to cut
  3. swing — music
  4. sharp — exactly
  5. clip — for paper
  6. bat — the animal
  7. mark — to pay attention
  8. content — the amount
  9. swing — to play on
  10. sharp — clever
  11. wound — an injury
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. sharp — with an edge
  15. content — happy
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. wound — an injury
  18. mark — a trace
  19. cold — an illness
  20. cold — not warm
  21. mark — a grade
  22. swing — in golf
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. clip — a video

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