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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. The ball is in your ________________.
  8. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  9. I can't ________________ this cold.
  10. This piece is in a major ________________.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  19. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  23. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. court — of a king
  3. stand — for spectators
  4. wind — moving air
  5. cold — an illness
  6. content — the amount
  7. court — for sport
  8. stand — on your feet
  9. stand — to bear
  10. key — in music
  11. degree — temperature
  12. key — for a lock
  13. content — happy
  14. cold — not warm
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. court — of law
  18. root — of a word
  19. root — of a plant
  20. wind — moving air
  21. degree — from a university
  22. root — the cause
  23. key — the most important part
  24. wind — to turn a key

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