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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. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. He works in a ________________ mill.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  11. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. I'll be taking the ________________.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. She's very handy with a ________________.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. hand — help
  3. saw — the tool
  4. hand — in cards
  5. tube — a container
  6. degree — an amount
  7. mine — for digging
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. kid — to tease
  10. tube — in a tire
  11. saw — past of 'see'
  12. race — a contest
  13. row — to paddle
  14. kid — child
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. degree — from a university
  17. tube — the underground
  18. row — a line
  19. saw — the tool
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. race — the arms race
  22. degree — temperature
  23. race — humankind
  24. row — a quarrel

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