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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. The ________________ market has crashed.
  7. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  16. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  17. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. This piece is in a major ________________.
  21. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  22. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  23. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. degree — from a university
  3. bass — low music
  4. degree — an amount
  5. bat — the animal
  6. stock — shares
  7. rule — government
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. stock — goods
  10. game — a match
  11. degree — temperature
  12. cold — an illness
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. bass — the instrument
  16. key — for a lock
  17. key — the most important part
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. game — wild animals
  20. key — in music
  21. rule — to rule out
  22. rule — a law
  23. bass — the fish
  24. bat — in an idiom

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