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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  6. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. It's one o'clock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. file — a tool
  3. cold — an illness
  4. drill — the tool
  5. sharp — clever
  6. race — a contest
  7. file — a document
  8. march — music
  9. race — the arms race
  10. row — to paddle
  11. drill — army training
  12. game — a match
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. file — a line of people
  15. march — the month
  16. sharp — with an edge
  17. cold — not warm
  18. row — a line
  19. game — wild animals
  20. march — the month
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. drill — a practice
  23. race — humankind
  24. sharp — exactly

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