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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. Have you settled on a ________________?
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  7. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  8. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  9. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. That must've been a ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. date — on the calendar
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. degree — from a university
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. degree — temperature
  6. rush — hurry
  7. date — the fruit
  8. rush — to hurry
  9. fork — to eat with
  10. wind — moving air
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. drill — the tool
  13. drill — a practice
  14. rush — a thrill
  15. cold — not warm
  16. drill — army training
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. fork — a garden tool
  19. kid — to tease
  20. cold — an illness
  21. fork — in a road
  22. degree — an amount
  23. kid — child
  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