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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: net · scale · row · chest · roll · cold · mate · race

  1. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  2. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  3. Have you found your soul ________________?
  4. We're on a ________________ here.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. scale — in music
  2. mate — a friend
  3. mate — a partner
  4. roll — on a roll
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. cold — not warm
  8. net — for catching
  9. mate — to breed
  10. row — a line
  11. net — after costs
  12. chest — of your body
  13. net — in sport
  14. chest — a box
  15. cold — an illness
  16. race — humankind
  17. roll — a cake
  18. race — a contest
  19. scale — size or range
  20. roll — a list
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. chest — of your body
  23. row — to paddle
  24. race — the arms race

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