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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 120 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: rush · file · race · bowl · cold · vault · degree · kick

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  7. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  8. That must've been a ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  15. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  16. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  17. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  20. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. race — a contest
  3. file — a line of people
  4. vault — in gymnastics
  5. file — a tool
  6. bowl — to roll
  7. vault — a safe
  8. rush — a thrill
  9. cold — an illness
  10. cold — not warm
  11. race — humankind
  12. race — the arms race
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. kick — a thrill
  15. bowl — a football final
  16. rush — hurry
  17. vault — an arched ceiling
  18. degree — an amount
  19. rush — to hurry
  20. kick — in football
  21. degree — temperature
  22. kick — with a leg
  23. file — a document
  24. degree — from a university

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