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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  7. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  8. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. file — a tool
  3. face — to confront
  4. degree — from a university
  5. kid — child
  6. bass — low music
  7. bowl — to roll
  8. bass — the instrument
  9. court — of law
  10. face — part of the head
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. bowl — a football final
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. bass — the fish
  16. court — for sport
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. degree — an amount
  19. face — to point toward
  20. degree — temperature
  21. court — of a king
  22. file — a document
  23. file — a line of people
  24. bowl — a dish

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