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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. My father caught me by the ________________.
  2. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  3. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. Have you found your soul ________________?
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  11. We're on a ________________ here.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  16. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  17. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  22. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. mate — to breed
  3. roll — a list
  4. capital — money
  5. mate — a partner
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. capital — a city
  8. race — a contest
  9. file — a tool
  10. mate — a friend
  11. roll — on a roll
  12. file — a line of people
  13. race — humankind
  14. cold — an illness
  15. fork — to eat with
  16. race — the arms race
  17. fork — a garden tool
  18. file — a document
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. fork — in a road
  21. arm — part of the body
  22. arm — a part of something
  23. cold — not warm
  24. roll — a cake

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