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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. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  7. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  8. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  11. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — to pay attention
  2. cold — an illness
  3. swing — to play on
  4. fall — the season
  5. race — a contest
  6. mark — a grade
  7. swing — in golf
  8. race — humankind
  9. fall — to drop
  10. pitch — a sports field
  11. pitch — completely
  12. kid — child
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. capital — money
  15. capital — a city
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. race — the arms race
  18. cold — not warm
  19. kid — to tease
  20. fall — to drop
  21. mark — a trace
  22. swing — music
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. pitch — a sales talk

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