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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  13. Have you found your soul ________________?
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. Don't do anything ________________.
  22. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. degree — from a university
  3. spring — a coil
  4. row — to paddle
  5. mate — to breed
  6. band — a ring
  7. degree — temperature
  8. track — a song
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. row — a line
  11. bat — the animal
  12. mate — a friend
  13. mate — a partner
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. rash — on the skin
  16. band — a music group
  17. track — a path
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. rash — a series
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. rash — hasty
  22. track — to keep track
  23. spring — the season
  24. spring — of water

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