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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  3. The King held a masked ________________.
  4. I can't ________________ this cold.
  5. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  12. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. That must've been a ________________.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. rush — hurry
  3. ball — a dance
  4. stand — to bear
  5. rush — to hurry
  6. degree — from a university
  7. wind — moving air
  8. stand — on your feet
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. ball — a great time
  12. ball — a round shape
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. rush — a thrill
  16. bat — the animal
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. degree — temperature
  19. degree — an amount
  20. wind — moving air
  21. stand — for spectators
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. hand — in cards

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