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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. That must've been a ________________.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. He is an ace ________________.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. file — a tool
  5. row — a line
  6. rush — hurry
  7. row — to paddle
  8. court — for sport
  9. rush — to hurry
  10. file — a line of people
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. rush — a thrill
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. court — of a king
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. bark — to shout
  17. degree — from a university
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. degree — temperature
  20. file — a document
  21. pitcher — in baseball
  22. bat — the animal
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. court — of law

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