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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 116 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 hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  7. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  14. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. Don't do anything ________________.
  18. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  19. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  20. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — a trace
  2. chair — a leader
  3. degree — an amount
  4. kid — child
  5. kid — to tease
  6. mark — a grade
  7. firm — a company
  8. cold — not warm
  9. cold — an illness
  10. field — for sport
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. firm — decided
  14. mark — to pay attention
  15. degree — temperature
  16. field — farmland
  17. rash — hasty
  18. rash — a series
  19. firm — steady
  20. rash — on the skin
  21. degree — from a university
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. chair — a professorship
  24. field — a subject

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