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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. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  18. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  19. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  24. The ball hit the back of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — part of the body
  2. degree — from a university
  3. ground — a position
  4. drill — the tool
  5. net — for catching
  6. band — a music group
  7. drill — army training
  8. march — the month
  9. degree — an amount
  10. drill — a practice
  11. content — happy
  12. degree — temperature
  13. hand — in cards
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. march — music
  16. content — the amount
  17. ground — crushed
  18. ground — the earth
  19. net — after costs
  20. band — a ring
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. march — the month
  23. hand — help
  24. net — in 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