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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  11. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  15. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  16. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  19. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  22. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. I'd like to play a game of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. cold — not warm
  3. racket — a loud noise
  4. degree — an amount
  5. band — a ring
  6. hand — help
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. cold — an illness
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. calf — of the leg
  11. fork — a garden tool
  12. squash — to crush
  13. degree — temperature
  14. fork — to eat with
  15. racket — for tennis
  16. racket — for tennis
  17. hand — in cards
  18. fork — in a road
  19. squash — the vegetable
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. calf — a young animal
  22. calf — a young animal
  23. band — a music group
  24. squash — the sport

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