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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. He is an ace ________________.
  21. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. cap — a hat
  3. chest — of your body
  4. snap — to click
  5. object — to protest
  6. chest — of your body
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. object — a thing
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. degree — an amount
  11. mine — for digging
  12. cap — of ice
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. cap — a lid
  16. chest — a box
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. degree — temperature
  19. spring — a coil
  20. pitcher — in baseball
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. spring — of water
  23. spring — the season
  24. object — an aim

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