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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. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  7. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  13. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  14. Did you ________________ the meat?
  15. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  18. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. The tickets are free of ________________.
  22. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. cold — not warm
  3. season — of the year
  4. degree — from a university
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. club — for golf
  8. cold — an illness
  9. hand — help
  10. file — a tool
  11. hand — in cards
  12. club — a group
  13. charge — in control
  14. season — to add flavour
  15. charge — electricity
  16. file — a document
  17. season — in sport
  18. hide — to keep secret
  19. degree — an amount
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. charge — a price
  22. hide — animal skin
  23. file — a line of people
  24. degree — temperature

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