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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 116 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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  5. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  6. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  14. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  20. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. cold — not warm
  4. drill — a practice
  5. vault — in gymnastics
  6. squash — the sport
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. cold — an illness
  9. kid — child
  10. degree — temperature
  11. degree — an amount
  12. content — the amount
  13. drill — the tool
  14. bowl — a football final
  15. content — happy
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. squash — to crush
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. vault — a safe
  20. vault — an arched ceiling
  21. degree — from a university
  22. kid — to tease
  23. bowl — to roll
  24. drill — army training

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