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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. Have you met the new head ________________?
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  11. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  18. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  23. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  24. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. bowl — a dish
  3. cold — not warm
  4. coach — a trainer
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. degree — temperature
  8. ruler — for measuring
  9. cold — an illness
  10. straw — a straw man
  11. wake — to stop sleeping
  12. degree — from a university
  13. ruler — a monarch
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. wake — before a funeral
  16. race — a contest
  17. bowl — a football final
  18. coach — pulled by horses
  19. wake — a trail
  20. race — the arms race
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. bowl — to roll
  23. ruler — for measuring
  24. race — humankind

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