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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. What do you think of the new ________________?
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  6. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. I can't ________________ this cold.
  11. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  12. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  24. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. cabinet — ministers
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. degree — from a university
  5. mouse — for a computer
  6. cabinet — ministers
  7. cold — an illness
  8. fork — in a road
  9. file — a tool
  10. stand — to bear
  11. stand — on your feet
  12. stand — for spectators
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. cabinet — a cupboard
  15. bat — the animal
  16. fork — to eat with
  17. file — a line of people
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. degree — temperature
  20. file — a document
  21. mouse — the animal
  22. cold — not warm
  23. fork — a garden tool
  24. mouse — the animal

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