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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  17. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  18. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  19. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  24. That was a fun ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. race — a contest
  4. cold — not warm
  5. wind — moving air
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. bark — of a tree
  8. ground — the earth
  9. game — wild animals
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cap — of ice
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. wind — moving air
  14. row — to paddle
  15. ground — a position
  16. bark — to shout
  17. ground — crushed
  18. wind — to turn a key
  19. cap — a hat
  20. race — humankind
  21. race — the arms race
  22. row — a line
  23. cap — a lid
  24. game — a match

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