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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. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  2. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  3. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  4. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  5. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  6. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. craft — a skill
  2. fall — the season
  3. kick — with a leg
  4. craft — a handicraft
  5. craft — boats
  6. scale — size or range
  7. cold — an illness
  8. degree — temperature
  9. fall — to drop
  10. scale — in music
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. degree — from a university
  14. chest — of your body
  15. kick — a thrill
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. degree — an amount
  18. fall — to drop
  19. cold — not warm
  20. scale — for weighing
  21. chest — of your body
  22. snap — to click
  23. chest — a box
  24. kick — in football

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