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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  4. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  5. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. There's no middle ________________.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. degree — from a university
  3. lash — to lash out
  4. lash — an eyelash
  5. lash — a whip stroke
  6. chair — a leader
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. court — of a king
  9. ground — crushed
  10. court — for sport
  11. march — music
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. game — a match
  14. march — the month
  15. march — the month
  16. prune — to trim
  17. prune — to trim
  18. degree — temperature
  19. court — of law
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. ground — a position
  23. game — wild animals
  24. ground — the earth

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