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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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Word bank
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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: present · drill · cold · mine · date · race · toast · sharp

  1. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  2. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  3. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  9. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  10. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  11. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  12. Have you settled on a ________________?
  13. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. It's one o'clock ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  22. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  24. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.

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

Answer key

  1. present — there
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. toast — bread
  4. race — a contest
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. race — the arms race
  7. mine — for digging
  8. drill — army training
  9. sharp — with an edge
  10. toast — the most admired
  11. sharp — clever
  12. date — on the calendar
  13. drill — the tool
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. sharp — exactly
  17. cold — not warm
  18. toast — a drink to someone
  19. race — humankind
  20. cold — an illness
  21. present — a gift
  22. present — the time now
  23. drill — a practice
  24. date — the fruit

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