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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: ground · tube · race · spell · cold · kid · mine · bass

  1. There's no middle ________________.
  2. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  14. How do you ________________ your surname?
  15. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. I'll be taking the ________________.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — a position
  2. tube — in a tire
  3. bass — low music
  4. bass — the instrument
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. cold — not warm
  7. bass — the fish
  8. tube — a container
  9. spell — magic
  10. ground — crushed
  11. ground — the earth
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. race — humankind
  14. spell — letters
  15. race — a contest
  16. mine — for digging
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. race — the arms race
  20. cold — an illness
  21. tube — the underground
  22. kid — child
  23. spell — a short time
  24. kid — to tease

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