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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 · row · race · track · degree · key · wound · drill

  1. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. This piece is in a major ________________.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  12. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  20. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. key — in music
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. key — the most important part
  5. race — a contest
  6. drill — the tool
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. cold — an illness
  9. race — the arms race
  10. degree — an amount
  11. drill — army training
  12. track — to keep track
  13. row — to paddle
  14. wound — an injury
  15. drill — a practice
  16. cold — not warm
  17. degree — temperature
  18. wound — an injury
  19. key — for a lock
  20. track — a path
  21. degree — from a university
  22. race — humankind
  23. track — a song
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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