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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. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  6. Did you ________________ the meat?
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. Have you found your soul ________________?
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  13. David sat on the ________________.
  14. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  15. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  16. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  17. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  18. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  19. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — to breed
  2. degree — an amount
  3. swing — in golf
  4. cell — a phone
  5. chip — to eat
  6. season — to add flavour
  7. degree — from a university
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. mate — a partner
  10. fall — to drop
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. chip — for betting
  13. swing — to play on
  14. swing — music
  15. mate — a friend
  16. chip — in a computer
  17. fall — the season
  18. season — in sport
  19. season — of the year
  20. cell — in biology
  21. bat — the animal
  22. degree — temperature
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. fall — to drop

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