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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. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  8. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  12. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  15. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  16. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  17. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  18. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. My father caught me by the ________________.
  21. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. cold — not warm
  3. cold — an illness
  4. wind — moving air
  5. chest — of your body
  6. race — the arms race
  7. bass — the instrument
  8. arm — part of the body
  9. race — a contest
  10. wind — moving air
  11. drill — army training
  12. sharp — with an edge
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. bass — the fish
  15. drill — the tool
  16. sharp — clever
  17. bass — low music
  18. drill — a practice
  19. chest — of your body
  20. arm — part of the body
  21. arm — a part of something
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. race — humankind
  24. chest — a box

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