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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: wave · chest · hide · race · cold · mine · drill · mate

  1. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  2. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  3. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  4. Have you found your soul ________________?
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  10. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  14. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  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. hide — to keep secret
  2. mate — to breed
  3. race — humankind
  4. mate — a partner
  5. race — the arms race
  6. drill — army training
  7. cold — an illness
  8. race — a contest
  9. mate — a friend
  10. hide — to keep secret
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. drill — the tool
  13. hide — animal skin
  14. wave — of the sea
  15. drill — a practice
  16. chest — of your body
  17. wave — a sudden rise
  18. mine — for digging
  19. wave — with your hand
  20. chest — of your body
  21. cold — not warm
  22. chest — a box
  23. mine — belonging to me
  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