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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 · swing · perch · date · saw · clip · capital · cold

  1. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  2. She's very handy with a ________________.
  3. Have you settled on a ________________?
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  7. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  13. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  14. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. David sat on the ________________.
  18. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  19. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  20. He works in a ________________ mill.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. race — a contest
  2. saw — the tool
  3. date — on the calendar
  4. clip — for paper
  5. cold — an illness
  6. swing — in golf
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. clip — a video
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. capital — a city
  12. swing — music
  13. date — the fruit
  14. saw — past of 'see'
  15. race — humankind
  16. cold — not warm
  17. swing — to play on
  18. race — the arms race
  19. perch — the fish
  20. saw — the tool
  21. capital — money
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. clip — to cut

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