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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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Word bank
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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: fan · ground · cold · game · pitch · club · race · shower

  1. That was a fun ________________.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  5. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  6. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  7. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  11. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  18. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  21. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  22. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. cold — not warm
  4. club — for dancing
  5. pitch — a sports field
  6. pitch — a sales talk
  7. ground — crushed
  8. ground — a position
  9. race — the arms race
  10. club — a group
  11. ground — the earth
  12. shower — rain
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. shower — to wash
  15. game — wild animals
  16. pitch — completely
  17. club — for golf
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. cold — an illness
  20. race — a contest
  21. fan — to cool the air
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. race — humankind
  24. cold — the Cold War

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