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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  22. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. wave — of the sea
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. wave — a sudden rise
  6. file — a tool
  7. court — of law
  8. cell — in biology
  9. snap — to click
  10. court — for sport
  11. file — a document
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. kid — child
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. degree — temperature
  17. cell — a phone
  18. prune — to trim
  19. kid — to tease
  20. court — of a king
  21. prune — to trim
  22. wave — with your hand
  23. degree — from a university
  24. file — a line of people

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