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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. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. We're almost out of ________________.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. That must've been a ________________.
  11. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  12. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  15. You don't need to ________________ round.
  16. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. kick — in football
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. game — wild animals
  4. game — a match
  5. kid — child
  6. pop — soda
  7. degree — from a university
  8. fork — to eat with
  9. kid — to tease
  10. rush — a thrill
  11. fork — a garden tool
  12. pop — music
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. rush — hurry
  15. pop — to visit
  16. rush — to hurry
  17. shower — rain
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. kick — with a leg
  20. fork — in a road
  21. kick — a thrill
  22. shower — to wash
  23. degree — temperature
  24. degree — an amount

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