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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. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  2. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  12. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  13. It's one o'clock ________________.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  19. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  20. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  23. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — magic
  2. sharp — with an edge
  3. bass — low music
  4. kid — child
  5. cold — not warm
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. spell — letters
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. degree — temperature
  10. shower — rain
  11. vault — a safe
  12. spell — a short time
  13. sharp — exactly
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. kid — to tease
  16. cold — an illness
  17. degree — an amount
  18. vault — an arched ceiling
  19. vault — in gymnastics
  20. bass — the instrument
  21. shower — to wash
  22. bass — the fish
  23. sharp — clever
  24. degree — from a university

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