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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: bat · cold · march · cap · rule · race

  1. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  2. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  5. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  11. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?

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

Answer key

  1. cap — of ice
  2. rule — government
  3. march — music
  4. race — the arms race
  5. rule — to rule out
  6. bat — the animal
  7. march — the month
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. rule — a law
  11. cap — a hat
  12. cold — not warm
  13. march — the month
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. race — a contest
  16. cold — an illness
  17. race — humankind
  18. cap — a lid

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