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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  5. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  6. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  7. That must've been a ________________.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  10. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  11. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  12. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  13. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  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. cold — not warm
  2. cold — an illness
  3. degree — from a university
  4. trunk — of a tree
  5. rush — to hurry
  6. object — an aim
  7. rush — a thrill
  8. degree — temperature
  9. rush — hurry
  10. chip — to eat
  11. snap — to snap out of it
  12. object — a thing
  13. object — to protest
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. snap — to click
  16. trunk — of a car
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. chip — in a computer
  19. file — a document
  20. chip — for betting
  21. degree — an amount
  22. file — a line of people
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. file — a tool

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