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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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  6. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  9. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. The ball is in your ________________.
  20. Don't do anything ________________.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. race — a contest
  3. dip — a sauce
  4. kid — to tease
  5. row — to paddle
  6. dip — to dunk
  7. court — of a king
  8. rash — on the skin
  9. rash — a series
  10. clip — a video
  11. clip — to cut
  12. court — of law
  13. kid — child
  14. clip — for paper
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. row — a line
  17. dip — to sink
  18. race — humankind
  19. court — for sport
  20. rash — hasty
  21. race — the arms race
  22. cold — an illness
  23. cold — not warm
  24. cold — the Cold War

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