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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  13. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  17. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. race — a contest
  3. wound — an injury
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. cold — an illness
  7. deal — an agreement
  8. cold — not warm
  9. race — the arms race
  10. file — a document
  11. file — a line of people
  12. spell — a short time
  13. race — humankind
  14. wound — an injury
  15. spell — magic
  16. deal — a big deal
  17. deal — to handle
  18. file — a tool

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