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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  4. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  5. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. Have you settled on a ________________?
  8. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  11. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  14. My father caught me by the ________________.
  15. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. cold — not warm
  3. tube — a container
  4. tube — in a tire
  5. scale — size or range
  6. row — to paddle
  7. date — on the calendar
  8. date — on the calendar
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. scale — in music
  11. arm — a part of something
  12. cold — an illness
  13. date — the fruit
  14. arm — part of the body
  15. scale — for weighing
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. capital — a city
  18. wind — moving air
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. wind — moving air
  21. arm — part of the body
  22. tube — the underground
  23. row — a line
  24. capital — money

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