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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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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: wind · leaves · mate · land · cold · file · race · firm

  1. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  2. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  9. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  19. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. Have you found your soul ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. firm — a company
  2. firm — decided
  3. land — a country
  4. cold — not warm
  5. leaves — to go away
  6. file — a tool
  7. wind — moving air
  8. leaves — of a tree
  9. firm — steady
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. wind — moving air
  12. leaves — lets stay
  13. race — a contest
  14. file — a document
  15. mate — to breed
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. land — ground
  18. race — the arms race
  19. mate — a friend
  20. race — humankind
  21. file — a line of people
  22. cold — an illness
  23. land — to come down
  24. mate — a partner

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