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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. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. Have you met the new head ________________?
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  17. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  18. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  23. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  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. degree — an amount
  2. mark — to pay attention
  3. chest — of your body
  4. chair — to sit on
  5. fall — the season
  6. file — a line of people
  7. chair — a leader
  8. chest — of your body
  9. craft — boats
  10. file — a tool
  11. craft — a handicraft
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. chest — a box
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. mark — a trace
  17. fall — to drop
  18. coach — pulled by horses
  19. file — a document
  20. fall — to drop
  21. degree — from a university
  22. mark — a grade
  23. craft — a skill
  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