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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  6. It's one o'clock ________________.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. The ________________ market has crashed.
  14. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  15. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  16. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  19. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. This knife is not ________________ enough.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. race — a contest
  3. cold — not warm
  4. sharp — clever
  5. stock — goods
  6. sharp — exactly
  7. band — a music group
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. craft — a skill
  11. ground — crushed
  12. tube — the underground
  13. stock — shares
  14. tube — a container
  15. tube — in a tire
  16. band — a rubber band
  17. race — humankind
  18. craft — boats
  19. craft — a handicraft
  20. ground — the earth
  21. ground — a position
  22. cold — an illness
  23. race — the arms race
  24. sharp — with an edge

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