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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: race · mouse · wound · last · toast · clip · shower · cold

  1. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  2. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  3. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  12. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  13. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  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. toast — bread
  2. race — humankind
  3. mouse — the animal
  4. clip — for paper
  5. last — to go on
  6. cold — not warm
  7. clip — to cut
  8. shower — rain
  9. shower — to wash
  10. last — final
  11. mouse — for a computer
  12. mouse — the animal
  13. toast — a drink to someone
  14. race — a contest
  15. toast — the most admired
  16. last — finally
  17. clip — a video
  18. race — the arms race
  19. cold — an illness
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. wound — an injury
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. wound — an injury
  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