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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: kid · date · wind · tube · cold · wound · race · march

  1. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. I'll be taking the ________________.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  22. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. race — humankind
  2. wound — an injury
  3. wind — moving air
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. cold — not warm
  6. kid — child
  7. tube — the underground
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. race — the arms race
  11. tube — in a tire
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. march — the month
  14. kid — to tease
  15. wound — an injury
  16. wind — moving air
  17. race — a contest
  18. date — the fruit
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. cold — an illness
  21. tube — a container
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. march — music
  24. march — the month

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