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

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  3. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  20. Did you ________________ the button?
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. race — humankind
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. hand — help
  6. tear — from crying
  7. mine — for digging
  8. press — a publisher
  9. race — a contest
  10. clip — for paper
  11. cold — not warm
  12. clip — to cut
  13. tear — to rip
  14. hand — in cards
  15. tear — from crying
  16. cold — an illness
  17. hide — to keep secret
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. press — newspapers
  20. press — to push
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. race — the arms race
  23. clip — a video
  24. hide — animal skin

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