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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. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  2. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  3. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  4. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  5. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. That was ________________ to happen.
  24. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.

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

Answer key

  1. cue — a hint
  2. track — to keep track
  3. cue — a signal
  4. wake — to stop sleeping
  5. bound — obliged
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. wake — a trail
  8. track — a path
  9. cold — an illness
  10. race — the arms race
  11. track — a song
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. bound — tied together
  14. chair — a leader
  15. race — humankind
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. cue — for pool
  18. cold — not warm
  19. degree — temperature
  20. degree — from a university
  21. degree — an amount
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. bound — certain
  24. race — a contest

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