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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  5. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. It's one o'clock ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  13. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  14. That must've been a ________________.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  17. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  18. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The elephant has a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. chair — a leader
  3. degree — an amount
  4. trunk — of a tree
  5. sharp — clever
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. cold — not warm
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. degree — temperature
  10. sharp — exactly
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. rush — to hurry
  13. can — a tin
  14. rush — a thrill
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. can — to be able to
  17. chair — a professorship
  18. rush — hurry
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. mine — for digging
  22. can — a tin
  23. cold — an illness
  24. trunk — of an elephant

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