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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: rush · hide · saw · race · club · band · cold · file

  1. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  3. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  6. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  7. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  13. She's very handy with a ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. That must've been a ________________.
  19. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. He works in a ________________ mill.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. club — a group
  3. club — for dancing
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. rush — to hurry
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. hide — animal skin
  8. file — a document
  9. race — a contest
  10. race — humankind
  11. race — the arms race
  12. band — a ring
  13. saw — the tool
  14. cold — an illness
  15. band — a music group
  16. hide — to keep secret
  17. file — a tool
  18. rush — a thrill
  19. saw — past of 'see'
  20. file — a line of people
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. saw — the tool
  23. cold — not warm
  24. club — for golf

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