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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. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. It's one o'clock ________________.
  19. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  22. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  23. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  24. This knife is not ________________ enough.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. cue — a hint
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. cue — for pool
  5. cold — not warm
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cue — a signal
  8. degree — an amount
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. scale — for weighing
  11. kid — to tease
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. kid — child
  14. scale — size or range
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. scale — in music
  17. degree — temperature
  18. sharp — exactly
  19. snap — to snap out of it
  20. degree — from a university
  21. snap — to click
  22. branch — of a bank
  23. branch — a division
  24. sharp — with an edge

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