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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 120 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. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  10. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  13. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  14. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. He was locked up in a ________________.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  23. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  24. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — a phone
  2. race — a contest
  3. net — for catching
  4. cold — an illness
  5. march — music
  6. march — the month
  7. ground — the earth
  8. cold — not warm
  9. rock — to move gently
  10. net — after costs
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. band — a rubber band
  13. rock — music
  14. rock — a stone
  15. march — the month
  16. band — a ring
  17. ground — a position
  18. band — a music group
  19. cell — in a prison
  20. net — in sport
  21. cell — in biology
  22. race — the arms race
  23. ground — crushed
  24. race — humankind

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