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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 felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  16. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  17. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  18. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. bat — the animal
  3. degree — from a university
  4. cold — not warm
  5. race — the arms race
  6. track — a path
  7. race — humankind
  8. chair — a leader
  9. degree — temperature
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. chair — a professorship
  12. chest — of your body
  13. chest — a box
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. race — a contest
  16. track — a song
  17. current — electric
  18. track — to keep track
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. cold — an illness
  21. current — of water
  22. degree — an amount
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. current — happening now

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