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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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Word bank
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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  4. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  9. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  10. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  11. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  12. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  13. My father caught me by the ________________.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  24. The people resisted their cruel ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. degree — from a university
  3. arm — a part of something
  4. ruler — for measuring
  5. content — happy
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. spring — the season
  8. arm — part of the body
  9. kick — with a leg
  10. kick — a thrill
  11. kick — in football
  12. ruler — for measuring
  13. arm — part of the body
  14. degree — an amount
  15. spring — of water
  16. squash — the sport
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. degree — temperature
  19. cold — an illness
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. cold — not warm
  22. content — the amount
  23. squash — to crush
  24. ruler — a monarch

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