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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 had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  11. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. Have you met the new head ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. cap — a lid
  4. wind — moving air
  5. coach — pulled by horses
  6. wind — moving air
  7. degree — temperature
  8. file — a line of people
  9. shower — rain
  10. coach — a trainer
  11. cap — of ice
  12. shower — to wash
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. file — a document
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. file — a tool
  18. cold — not warm
  19. bat — the animal
  20. degree — from a university
  21. cap — a hat
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. degree — an amount
  24. coach — a trainer

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