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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 116 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. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The King held a masked ________________.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. racket — for tennis
  2. race — a contest
  3. stem — to come from
  4. cold — not warm
  5. degree — from a university
  6. ball — a round shape
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. racket — for tennis
  9. degree — temperature
  10. cold — an illness
  11. ball — a dance
  12. hand — help
  13. ball — a great time
  14. hand — in cards
  15. stem — a stem cell
  16. spring — a coil
  17. race — the arms race
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. degree — an amount
  20. race — humankind
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. spring — the season
  23. racket — a loud noise
  24. spring — of water

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