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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: cold · band · snap · fall · pitch · rule · fan · race

  1. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  4. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  20. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  21. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  22. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  23. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  24. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. rule — a law
  5. cold — an illness
  6. fan — to cool the air
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. race — the arms race
  9. band — a ring
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. rule — government
  12. band — a music group
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. pitch — a sports field
  15. cold — not warm
  16. snap — to speak sharply
  17. fall — to drop
  18. race — humankind
  19. pitch — completely
  20. pitch — a sales talk
  21. rule — to rule out
  22. race — a contest
  23. fall — the season
  24. fall — to drop

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