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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  6. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  11. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. race — humankind
  3. chest — a box
  4. file — a document
  5. stock — a soup base
  6. wake — to stop sleeping
  7. chest — of your body
  8. file — a line of people
  9. chest — of your body
  10. wake — before a funeral
  11. branch — of a tree
  12. tear — from crying
  13. cold — an illness
  14. stock — shares
  15. file — a tool
  16. stock — goods
  17. race — a contest
  18. tear — from crying
  19. wake — a trail
  20. branch — a division
  21. race — the arms race
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. branch — of a bank
  24. tear — to rip

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