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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 get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. When will it ________________ you to start?
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  13. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  14. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  19. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — a thrill
  2. degree — from a university
  3. vault — an arched ceiling
  4. chest — a box
  5. suit — in cards
  6. wound — an injury
  7. wound — an injury
  8. chest — of your body
  9. chest — of your body
  10. suit — to fit
  11. court — of a king
  12. vault — in gymnastics
  13. vault — a safe
  14. suit — clothes
  15. court — for sport
  16. degree — temperature
  17. cold — not warm
  18. kick — with a leg
  19. kick — in football
  20. degree — an amount
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. cold — an illness
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. court — of law

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