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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. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  5. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  6. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  15. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  19. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — the tool
  2. degree — from a university
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. cap — a hat
  5. bark — a dog's sound
  6. squash — the vegetable
  7. game — wild animals
  8. degree — temperature
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. shower — rain
  11. bark — to shout
  12. degree — an amount
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. squash — the sport
  15. cap — a lid
  16. game — a match
  17. drill — a practice
  18. squash — to crush
  19. drill — army training
  20. shower — to wash
  21. cap — of ice
  22. file — a line of people
  23. file — a document
  24. file — a tool

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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