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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. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Don't do anything ________________.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  12. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  13. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  17. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  20. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  21. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  22. Have you settled on a ________________?
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — part of the body
  2. last — final
  3. last — finally
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. rash — hasty
  6. degree — from a university
  7. squash — to crush
  8. degree — temperature
  9. degree — an amount
  10. last — to go on
  11. squash — the sport
  12. jam — a tight spot
  13. date — the fruit
  14. cold — an illness
  15. hand — help
  16. squash — the vegetable
  17. rash — on the skin
  18. cold — not warm
  19. jam — to spread on bread
  20. date — on the calendar
  21. jam — in traffic
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. rash — a series
  24. hand — in cards

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