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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: cold · scale · race · bark · clip · game · rash · wave

  1. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  2. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  3. Don't do anything ________________.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  6. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  7. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  8. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  23. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. race — humankind
  2. rash — a series
  3. rash — hasty
  4. game — a match
  5. wave — a sudden rise
  6. rash — on the skin
  7. bark — of a tree
  8. scale — for weighing
  9. scale — size or range
  10. clip — to cut
  11. clip — for paper
  12. scale — in music
  13. bark — to shout
  14. race — the arms race
  15. wave — with your hand
  16. cold — an illness
  17. clip — a video
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. cold — not warm
  21. game — wild animals
  22. race — a contest
  23. wave — of the sea
  24. game — a kind of play

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