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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 ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. He works in a ________________ mill.
  9. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  14. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. How do you ________________ your surname?
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. She's very handy with a ________________.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. degree — an amount
  3. root — of a word
  4. kid — child
  5. degree — from a university
  6. land — a country
  7. chest — of your body
  8. saw — the tool
  9. saw — past of 'see'
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. chest — a box
  13. root — of a plant
  14. root — the cause
  15. chest — of your body
  16. land — to come down
  17. spell — letters
  18. land — ground
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. saw — the tool
  21. kid — to tease
  22. spell — magic
  23. degree — temperature
  24. spell — a short time

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