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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.

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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  3. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  7. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. He is an ace ________________.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  16. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  17. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. Have you met the new head ________________?
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. dip — a sauce
  4. court — for sport
  5. cell — a phone
  6. coach — pulled by horses
  7. snap — to click
  8. court — of a king
  9. pitcher — in baseball
  10. degree — an amount
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. mine — for digging
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. dip — to sink
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. court — of law
  19. degree — temperature
  20. coach — a trainer
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. dip — to dunk
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. cell — in biology

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