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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. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  7. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  8. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  9. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  19. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.

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

Answer key

  1. mouse — the animal
  2. club — for golf
  3. net — in sport
  4. cold — not warm
  5. shower — to wash
  6. club — for dancing
  7. mouse — the animal
  8. face — to confront
  9. mouse — for a computer
  10. degree — from a university
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. degree — an amount
  13. club — a group
  14. fork — a garden tool
  15. degree — temperature
  16. net — for catching
  17. face — part of the head
  18. net — after costs
  19. fork — to eat with
  20. fork — in a road
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. cold — an illness
  23. shower — rain
  24. face — to point toward

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