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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  10. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  11. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. cell — a phone
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. swing — to play on
  6. kid — child
  7. track — a path
  8. swing — in golf
  9. swing — music
  10. track — to keep track
  11. rock — to move gently
  12. degree — from a university
  13. cell — in biology
  14. kid — to tease
  15. rock — a stone
  16. degree — temperature
  17. degree — an amount
  18. track — a song

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