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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: shower · race · drill · pitch · hand · squash · file · sharp

  1. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  8. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  17. It's one o'clock ________________.
  18. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  22. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. hand — in cards
  3. pitch — completely
  4. file — a line of people
  5. race — the arms race
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. race — a contest
  8. pitch — a sales talk
  9. file — a tool
  10. drill — army training
  11. drill — the tool
  12. sharp — clever
  13. file — a document
  14. shower — rain
  15. hand — help
  16. squash — to crush
  17. sharp — exactly
  18. squash — the sport
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. shower — to wash
  21. pitch — a sports field
  22. drill — a practice
  23. race — humankind
  24. squash — the vegetable

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