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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. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  8. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  14. You don't need to ________________ round.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. The ball is in your ________________.
  18. We're almost out of ________________.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  21. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  22. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the vegetable
  2. degree — an amount
  3. race — humankind
  4. cold — an illness
  5. cold — not warm
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. race — a contest
  8. racket — for tennis
  9. squash — to crush
  10. degree — from a university
  11. court — of a king
  12. court — of law
  13. pop — music
  14. pop — to visit
  15. race — the arms race
  16. row — to paddle
  17. court — for sport
  18. pop — soda
  19. row — a line
  20. squash — the sport
  21. racket — for tennis
  22. racket — a loud noise
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. degree — temperature

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