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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: cue · clip · chip · cold · drill · race

  1. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  8. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  15. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  16. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. There's a computer ________________ on the table.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — the tool
  2. cold — not warm
  3. race — the arms race
  4. race — humankind
  5. cold — an illness
  6. clip — a video
  7. drill — army training
  8. cue — for pool
  9. race — a contest
  10. clip — to cut
  11. chip — for betting
  12. clip — for paper
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. chip — to eat
  15. cue — a signal
  16. cue — a hint
  17. drill — a practice
  18. chip — in a computer

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