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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. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  3. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  6. It's one o'clock ________________.
  7. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  13. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  14. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  17. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  18. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  19. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  24. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. lean — thin
  3. sharp — with an edge
  4. cold — an illness
  5. present — the time now
  6. sharp — exactly
  7. pitch — a sales talk
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. cap — of ice
  10. degree — temperature
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. cap — a hat
  13. sharp — clever
  14. present — a gift
  15. degree — from a university
  16. cap — a lid
  17. pitch — a sports field
  18. lean — to bend
  19. lean — to rest against
  20. cold — not warm
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. present — there
  24. pitch — completely

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