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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  4. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  9. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  19. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. sharp — with an edge
  4. chair — to sit on
  5. march — the month
  6. bass — low music
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. vault — a safe
  9. chair — a leader
  10. wind — moving air
  11. degree — from a university
  12. degree — temperature
  13. cold — an illness
  14. vault — in gymnastics
  15. bass — the fish
  16. march — music
  17. degree — an amount
  18. sharp — clever
  19. bass — the instrument
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. march — the month
  23. vault — an arched ceiling
  24. wind — moving air

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