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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. David sat on the ________________.
  2. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  3. Have you found your soul ________________?
  4. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  5. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  6. Did you ________________ the meat?
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  10. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  19. Don't do anything ________________.
  20. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — to play on
  2. season — in sport
  3. mate — a partner
  4. mate — to breed
  5. rash — on the skin
  6. season — to add flavour
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. cold — not warm
  9. bark — to shout
  10. mate — a friend
  11. file — a line of people
  12. file — a document
  13. race — a contest
  14. race — the arms race
  15. season — of the year
  16. race — humankind
  17. cold — an illness
  18. bark — of a tree
  19. rash — hasty
  20. rash — a series
  21. swing — music
  22. swing — in golf
  23. bark — a dog's sound
  24. file — a tool

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