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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 116 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: cold · bear · court · race · prune · file · game · nail

  1. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  6. The ________________ went through the wall.
  7. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  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. bear — to put up with
  2. prune — to trim
  3. court — of law
  4. court — of a king
  5. bear — the animal
  6. nail — for a hammer
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. race — a contest
  9. cold — an illness
  10. file — a line of people
  11. nail — on a finger
  12. prune — to trim
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. court — for sport
  16. game — a match
  17. prune — the fruit
  18. cold — not warm
  19. bear — the animal
  20. game — wild animals
  21. file — a tool
  22. file — a document
  23. race — the arms race
  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