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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  3. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  4. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  5. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  9. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. Where did you ________________ them?
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  21. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  22. The King held a masked ________________.
  23. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. mug — a cup
  3. mug — a face
  4. ball — a round shape
  5. kick — with a leg
  6. cold — an illness
  7. file — a tool
  8. ball — a great time
  9. bank — for money
  10. file — a line of people
  11. mug — to rob
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. cold — not warm
  14. degree — from a university
  15. tear — to rip
  16. tear — from crying
  17. file — a document
  18. bank — for money
  19. tear — from crying
  20. kick — in football
  21. bank — of a river
  22. ball — a dance
  23. kick — a thrill
  24. degree — temperature

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