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

  1. David sat on the ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  9. It's one o'clock ________________.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  21. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  22. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  23. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  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. swing — to play on
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. lean — to bend
  4. race — humankind
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. chair — a leader
  7. cold — an illness
  8. lean — thin
  9. sharp — exactly
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. race — the arms race
  12. sharp — clever
  13. land — ground
  14. cold — not warm
  15. snap — to click
  16. swing — in golf
  17. snap — to speak sharply
  18. land — to come down
  19. land — a country
  20. sharp — with an edge
  21. race — a contest
  22. snap — to snap out of it
  23. lean — to rest against
  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