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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. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  12. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  13. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  18. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  19. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  20. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  21. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  24. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. rash — hasty
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. degree — from a university
  5. content — the amount
  6. craft — a handicraft
  7. chair — a leader
  8. cap — of ice
  9. degree — temperature
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. rash — a series
  12. stick — a piece of wood
  13. rash — on the skin
  14. content — happy
  15. bat — the animal
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. craft — a skill
  18. stick — a piece of wood
  19. craft — boats
  20. stick — to attach or keep to
  21. cap — a hat
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. chair — a professorship
  24. cap — a lid

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