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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. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  2. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. The ________________ took off on time.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  10. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — temperature
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. row — a line
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. plane — an aircraft
  7. row — to paddle
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. plane — in geometry
  10. plane — a tool
  11. cold — not warm
  12. degree — from a university
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. cold — an illness
  18. degree — an amount

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