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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. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The light ________________ burned out.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. I've got to change the light ________________.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. Have you settled on a ________________?
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. It's one o'clock ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. He's quite ________________, isn't he?

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

Answer key

  1. cell — in biology
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. bulb — of a plant
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. bulb — for light
  6. degree — an amount
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. degree — temperature
  9. bulb — for light
  10. degree — from a university
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. date — the fruit
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. cell — a phone
  18. mine — for digging
  19. sharp — exactly
  20. cold — an illness
  21. date — on the calendar
  22. cold — not warm
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. sharp — clever

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