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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. He is an ace ________________.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  8. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  11. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  14. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. The King held a masked ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. cold — not warm
  3. cold — an illness
  4. pitcher — in baseball
  5. march — the month
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. ball — a round shape
  8. stem — to come from
  9. bat — the animal
  10. stick — a piece of wood
  11. stick — a piece of wood
  12. degree — temperature
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. march — music
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. march — the month
  18. stick — to attach or keep to
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. stem — of a plant
  21. degree — an amount
  22. ball — a dance
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. ball — a great time

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