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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: lie · roll · race · patient · straw · bowl · cold · file

  1. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  2. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  3. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  4. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  7. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  19. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  20. We're on a ________________ here.
  21. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  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. bowl — a football final
  2. race — humankind
  3. bowl — a dish
  4. bowl — to roll
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. roll — a cake
  8. race — a contest
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cold — an illness
  11. file — a line of people
  12. lie — an untruth
  13. race — the arms race
  14. patient — calm and waiting
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. file — a document
  17. file — a tool
  18. roll — a list
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. roll — on a roll
  21. lie — an untruth
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. lie — to recline
  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