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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. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  13. When will it ________________ you to start?
  14. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. degree — temperature
  3. cold — not warm
  4. net — after costs
  5. hand — in cards
  6. game — a match
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. drill — a practice
  10. degree — from a university
  11. degree — an amount
  12. suit — in cards
  13. suit — to fit
  14. band — a ring
  15. game — wild animals
  16. net — for catching
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. net — in sport
  19. hand — help
  20. suit — clothes
  21. cold — an illness
  22. drill — the tool
  23. drill — army training
  24. band — a rubber band

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