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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. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  10. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  14. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  24. It's one o'clock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. lash — to lash out
  2. cold — not warm
  3. lash — an eyelash
  4. hand — in cards
  5. race — a contest
  6. race — the arms race
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. sharp — with an edge
  10. lash — a whip stroke
  11. cold — an illness
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. patient — calm and waiting
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. race — humankind
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. band — a ring
  19. sharp — clever
  20. band — a music group
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. mine — for digging
  23. hand — help
  24. sharp — exactly

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