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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.

Words on the sheet
468
Word bank
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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  3. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. My father caught me by the ________________.
  19. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. arm — part of the body
  3. mouse — the animal
  4. spell — letters
  5. kid — to tease
  6. degree — temperature
  7. spell — a short time
  8. cold — an illness
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. spell — magic
  11. cold — not warm
  12. arm — a part of something
  13. prune — to trim
  14. mouse — for a computer
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. kid — child
  17. cell — a phone
  18. arm — part of the body
  19. mouse — the animal
  20. degree — from a university
  21. cell — in biology
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. prune — to trim
  24. cold — the Cold War

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