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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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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 · scale · race · bulb · pass · march · wind · last

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  11. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  12. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  13. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The light ________________ burned out.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. I've got to change the light ________________.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  24. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. race — the arms race
  3. last — finally
  4. scale — size or range
  5. race — a contest
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. scale — in music
  9. cold — not warm
  10. march — the month
  11. scale — for weighing
  12. pass — a permit
  13. pass — to succeed
  14. cold — an illness
  15. bulb — for light
  16. wind — moving air
  17. bulb — for light
  18. march — music
  19. last — to go on
  20. wind — moving air
  21. march — the month
  22. race — humankind
  23. bulb — of a plant
  24. pass — to spend time

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