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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 116 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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. Have you met the new head ________________?
  5. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. The light ________________ burned out.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  12. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  22. I've got to change the light ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  24. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. bowl — a dish
  3. wind — moving air
  4. coach — a trainer
  5. coach — pulled by horses
  6. degree — an amount
  7. bulb — of a plant
  8. degree — from a university
  9. bulb — for light
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. bowl — a football final
  12. prune — the fruit
  13. prune — to trim
  14. lash — a whip stroke
  15. wind — moving air
  16. degree — temperature
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. cold — an illness
  19. bowl — to roll
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. lash — an eyelash
  22. bulb — for light
  23. lash — to lash out
  24. prune — to trim

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