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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. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  2. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  15. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?

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

Answer key

  1. rule — a law
  2. rule — to rule out
  3. court — for sport
  4. degree — from a university
  5. degree — temperature
  6. court — of a king
  7. craft — a skill
  8. cold — an illness
  9. cold — not warm
  10. court — of law
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. game — wild animals
  14. bark — a dog's sound
  15. craft — boats
  16. tear — from crying
  17. game — a match
  18. bark — to shout
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. tear — from crying
  21. craft — a handicraft
  22. tear — to rip
  23. degree — an amount
  24. rule — government

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