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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. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  2. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  3. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. He is an ace ________________.
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  15. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  16. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. ________________ games are popular in Germany.

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

Answer key

  1. track — a path
  2. board — a committee
  3. board — to get on
  4. cold — not warm
  5. march — the month
  6. pitcher — in baseball
  7. race — humankind
  8. march — music
  9. track — to keep track
  10. race — a contest
  11. race — the arms race
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. squash — to crush
  14. squash — the sport
  15. track — a song
  16. scale — for weighing
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. cold — an illness
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. scale — size or range
  22. scale — in music
  23. march — the month
  24. board — a flat piece

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