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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. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. He works in a ________________ mill.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  9. She's very handy with a ________________.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  23. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. drill — army training
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. saw — the tool
  7. wind — moving air
  8. race — the arms race
  9. saw — the tool
  10. bat — the animal
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. saw — past of 'see'
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. scale — size or range
  15. drill — a practice
  16. drill — the tool
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. capital — money
  19. cold — not warm
  20. capital — a city
  21. race — humankind
  22. race — a contest
  23. scale — in music
  24. cold — an illness

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