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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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  5. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  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. content — the amount
  2. swing — in golf
  3. swing — to play on
  4. lash — an eyelash
  5. root — of a plant
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — not warm
  8. game — a match
  9. march — the month
  10. degree — temperature
  11. lash — to lash out
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. lash — a whip stroke
  14. content — happy
  15. degree — from a university
  16. root — of a word
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. swing — music
  19. root — the cause
  20. march — music
  21. game — wild animals
  22. march — the month
  23. degree — an amount
  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