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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 had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The light ________________ burned out.
  9. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  14. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  15. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. I've got to change the light ________________.
  23. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  24. He took the fish out of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. mate — a partner
  3. degree — temperature
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. cold — not warm
  6. bulb — of a plant
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. bulb — for light
  9. rest — a break
  10. degree — from a university
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. degree — an amount
  13. net — after costs
  14. mate — to breed
  15. rest — what's left
  16. hand — in cards
  17. mate — a friend
  18. hand — help
  19. net — in sport
  20. band — a ring
  21. band — a music group
  22. bulb — for light
  23. rest — what's left
  24. net — for catching

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