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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  4. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  14. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. kid — child
  3. racket — for tennis
  4. root — of a word
  5. kid — to tease
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. wind — moving air
  9. racket — for tennis
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. wind — moving air
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. root — of a plant
  14. racket — a loud noise
  15. band — a music group
  16. degree — temperature
  17. root — the cause
  18. bark — to shout
  19. degree — from a university
  20. band — a ring
  21. hand — in cards
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. degree — an amount

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