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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: bowl · race · straw · band · file · cold

  1. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  2. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  3. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  4. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — to clutch at straws
  2. race — humankind
  3. race — a contest
  4. bowl — a dish
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. cold — an illness
  7. race — the arms race
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. cold — not warm
  10. band — a rubber band
  11. file — a document
  12. bowl — to roll
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. file — a line of people
  15. band — a music group
  16. bowl — a football final
  17. file — a tool
  18. band — a ring

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