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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 120 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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. He works in a ________________ mill.
  8. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  9. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  10. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The ________________ market has crashed.
  17. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  24. The ball is in your ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. degree — temperature
  3. patient — calm and waiting
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. pitch — completely
  6. degree — from a university
  7. saw — the tool
  8. stock — goods
  9. pitch — a sales talk
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. saw — the tool
  12. court — of law
  13. chair — a leader
  14. stock — a soup base
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. stock — shares
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. saw — past of 'see'
  20. cold — an illness
  21. cold — not warm
  22. court — of a king
  23. pitch — a sports field
  24. court — for sport

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