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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  4. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  13. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. Have you met the new head ________________?
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. degree — from a university
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. leaves — to go away
  5. degree — temperature
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. degree — an amount
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. shower — rain
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. leaves — of a tree
  13. leaves — lets stay
  14. field — a subject
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. march — the month
  18. field — farmland
  19. coach — pulled by horses
  20. march — music
  21. march — the month
  22. cold — an illness
  23. shower — to wash
  24. field — for sport

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