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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. When are we going to ________________?
  2. Have you settled on a ________________?
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  21. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  22. The ________________ took off on time.
  23. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  24. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. drill — a practice
  4. wound — an injury
  5. land — ground
  6. drill — the tool
  7. cold — an illness
  8. wound — an injury
  9. mouse — for a computer
  10. drill — army training
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. cold — not warm
  14. date — the fruit
  15. race — humankind
  16. mouse — the animal
  17. race — the arms race
  18. date — on the calendar
  19. land — a country
  20. mouse — the animal
  21. plane — in geometry
  22. plane — an aircraft
  23. race — a contest
  24. plane — 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