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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: charge · cold · race · firm · tear · net · snap · land

  1. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. The tickets are free of ________________.
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  10. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  16. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. tear — from crying
  3. charge — a price
  4. net — in sport
  5. firm — steady
  6. land — ground
  7. land — a country
  8. cold — not warm
  9. charge — electricity
  10. net — for catching
  11. land — to come down
  12. firm — a company
  13. race — a contest
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. firm — decided
  16. snap — to click
  17. race — humankind
  18. tear — to rip
  19. charge — in control
  20. tear — from crying
  21. race — the arms race
  22. net — after costs
  23. cold — an illness
  24. cold — the Cold War

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