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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 120 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. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  21. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  22. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. race — the arms race
  2. march — music
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. cold — an illness
  5. row — to paddle
  6. tear — to rip
  7. race — humankind
  8. row — a line
  9. present — the time now
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. spring — a coil
  12. spring — the season
  13. race — a contest
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. march — the month
  16. tear — from crying
  17. cold — not warm
  18. spring — of water
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. march — the month
  21. present — there
  22. present — a gift
  23. tear — from crying
  24. row — a quarrel

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