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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  23. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  24. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. tear — from crying
  3. cue — a signal
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. cap — a hat
  7. file — a tool
  8. cue — a hint
  9. kid — to tease
  10. kid — child
  11. tear — from crying
  12. degree — temperature
  13. bass — low music
  14. tear — to rip
  15. bass — the fish
  16. file — a line of people
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. cue — for pool
  19. bark — to shout
  20. degree — from a university
  21. file — a document
  22. bass — the instrument
  23. cap — of ice
  24. cap — a lid

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