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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: pitcher · spring · tube · lie · race · cold · sharp · hand

  1. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. He is an ace ________________.
  3. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  10. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  20. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. It's one o'clock ________________.
  23. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  24. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. pitcher — in baseball
  3. sharp — clever
  4. spring — a coil
  5. tube — a container
  6. race — the arms race
  7. hand — help
  8. spring — the season
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. lie — an untruth
  11. cold — an illness
  12. tube — the underground
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. cold — not warm
  15. race — humankind
  16. lie — an untruth
  17. race — a contest
  18. hand — in cards
  19. lie — to recline
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. sharp — exactly
  23. sharp — with an edge
  24. tube — in a tire

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