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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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  10. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  13. The ________________ took off on time.
  14. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  15. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  16. That must've been a ________________.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  20. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. Don't do anything ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. file — a tool
  3. game — wild animals
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. race — the arms race
  6. wind — moving air
  7. rash — a series
  8. file — a line of people
  9. rush — to hurry
  10. plane — a tool
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. race — humankind
  13. plane — an aircraft
  14. rash — on the skin
  15. plane — in geometry
  16. rush — a thrill
  17. game — a match
  18. cold — an illness
  19. rush — hurry
  20. race — a contest
  21. wind — moving air
  22. file — a document
  23. rash — hasty
  24. cold — not warm

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