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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 120 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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  7. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  10. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  19. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. That must've been a ________________.
  24. Take your time. There's no ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. court — for sport
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. degree — an amount
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. rush — to hurry
  7. drill — a practice
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. dip — to sink
  10. dip — to dunk
  11. chest — a box
  12. degree — temperature
  13. drill — army training
  14. chest — of your body
  15. court — of a king
  16. mine — belonging to me
  17. mine — for digging
  18. dip — a sauce
  19. drill — the tool
  20. chest — of your body
  21. court — of law
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. rush — a thrill
  24. rush — hurry

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