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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. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  8. It's one o'clock ________________.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  15. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  21. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. bat — the animal
  5. degree — from a university
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. stem — to come from
  8. sharp — exactly
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. stem — of a plant
  11. degree — an amount
  12. ground — a position
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. wave — with your hand
  15. ground — crushed
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. ground — the earth
  18. snap — to click
  19. cold — an illness
  20. sharp — clever
  21. wave — a sudden rise
  22. cold — not warm
  23. degree — temperature
  24. wave — of the sea

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