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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. The King held a masked ________________.
  2. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. You don't need to ________________ round.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  18. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  19. It's one o'clock ________________.
  20. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. We're almost out of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a dance
  2. ball — a round shape
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. degree — temperature
  5. chip — in a computer
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. sharp — clever
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. spell — letters
  10. chip — for betting
  11. degree — an amount
  12. cold — an illness
  13. pop — to visit
  14. cold — not warm
  15. degree — from a university
  16. spell — magic
  17. chip — to eat
  18. pop — music
  19. sharp — exactly
  20. ball — a great time
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. spell — a short time
  24. pop — soda

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