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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. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. He is an ace ________________.
  23. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  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. degree — from a university
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. degree — an amount
  4. craft — boats
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. chair — a leader
  7. pit — a hole
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. craft — a handicraft
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. craft — a skill
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. pit — a fruit stone
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. band — a music group
  17. cold — not warm
  18. cold — an illness
  19. band — a ring
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. degree — temperature
  22. pitcher — in baseball
  23. pit — in a race
  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