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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. She's very handy with a ________________.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  8. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  11. He works in a ________________ mill.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  14. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  15. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. shower — rain
  3. degree — an amount
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. tube — in a tire
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. deal — to handle
  8. chair — to sit on
  9. tube — the underground
  10. chair — a leader
  11. saw — the tool
  12. cold — not warm
  13. saw — past of 'see'
  14. tube — a container
  15. deal — an agreement
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. chair — a professorship
  18. shower — to wash
  19. mine — for digging
  20. degree — from a university
  21. deal — a big deal
  22. degree — temperature
  23. cold — an illness
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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