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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: rest · bowl · race · file · scale · cold

  1. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  4. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  7. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  8. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  14. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. file — a line of people
  3. bowl — a football final
  4. scale — for weighing
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. race — a contest
  7. bowl — a dish
  8. rest — what's left
  9. scale — in music
  10. cold — not warm
  11. rest — what's left
  12. scale — size or range
  13. race — humankind
  14. rest — a break
  15. cold — an illness
  16. race — the arms race
  17. file — a tool
  18. file — a document

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