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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  11. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  15. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  24. The polar ice ________________ is melting.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. bark — to shout
  4. kid — child
  5. degree — an amount
  6. hand — help
  7. cap — a lid
  8. degree — from a university
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. fine — high quality
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. degree — temperature
  14. fine — a penalty
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. spring — the season
  18. fan — to cool the air
  19. hand — in cards
  20. spring — a coil
  21. fine — all right
  22. spring — of water
  23. cap — a hat
  24. cap — of ice

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