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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  6. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  7. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. Have you met the new head ________________?
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. That must've been a ________________.
  13. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  14. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  19. The ball is in your ________________.
  20. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  23. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. file — a tool
  3. wound — an injury
  4. court — of law
  5. cap — a lid
  6. rush — hurry
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. wound — an injury
  9. cap — of ice
  10. coach — a trainer
  11. file — a document
  12. rush — a thrill
  13. kick — in football
  14. rush — to hurry
  15. court — of a king
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. file — a line of people
  18. kick — with a leg
  19. court — for sport
  20. kick — a thrill
  21. degree — from a university
  22. coach — pulled by horses
  23. cap — a hat
  24. degree — temperature

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