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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. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  3. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  21. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  22. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  23. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. cue — a hint
  3. perch — the fish
  4. race — a contest
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. degree — from a university
  7. cold — an illness
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. branch — a division
  10. degree — an amount
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. cue — a signal
  13. cold — not warm
  14. chair — a leader
  15. degree — temperature
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. race — humankind
  19. race — the arms race
  20. branch — of a tree
  21. cue — for pool
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. chair — to sit on
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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