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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: march · press · cold · board · kid · race · pitcher · calf

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. Did you ________________ the button?
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  8. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  9. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. He is an ace ________________.
  12. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  13. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  14. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  20. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  21. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. march — the month
  3. kid — child
  4. press — to push
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. race — humankind
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. calf — a young animal
  9. board — a committee
  10. kid — to tease
  11. pitcher — in baseball
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. calf — a young animal
  14. press — newspapers
  15. race — the arms race
  16. board — a flat piece
  17. march — the month
  18. march — music
  19. calf — of the leg
  20. press — a publisher
  21. race — a contest
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. cold — an illness
  24. board — to get on

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