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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: face · file · bass · pound · pitch · last · cold · race

  1. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  2. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  5. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  6. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  18. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  19. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  20. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  21. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  24. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — low music
  2. bass — the fish
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. face — part of the head
  5. pitch — a sports field
  6. pound — to hit hard
  7. cold — not warm
  8. face — to point toward
  9. race — the arms race
  10. file — a document
  11. pitch — completely
  12. last — finally
  13. cold — an illness
  14. last — to go on
  15. file — a tool
  16. race — a contest
  17. bass — the instrument
  18. pound — a weight
  19. pitch — a sales talk
  20. pound — for dogs
  21. face — to confront
  22. file — a line of people
  23. last — final
  24. race — humankind

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