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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 pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  10. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  22. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  23. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. kid — child
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. game — a match
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. band — a music group
  7. stem — a stem cell
  8. degree — temperature
  9. rule — government
  10. band — a rubber band
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. stem — to come from
  13. degree — an amount
  14. band — a ring
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. kid — to tease
  17. snap — to snap out of it
  18. degree — from a university
  19. snap — to click
  20. bat — the animal
  21. rule — to rule out
  22. stem — of a plant
  23. rule — a law
  24. game — a kind of play

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