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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. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  2. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  17. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  20. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  21. Have you met the new head ________________?
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  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. bass — low music
  2. fork — a garden tool
  3. chest — of your body
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. bass — the fish
  9. degree — an amount
  10. bat — the animal
  11. coach — pulled by horses
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. chest — a box
  14. fork — to eat with
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. wake — a trail
  17. wake — before a funeral
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. fork — in a road
  20. wake — to stop sleeping
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. degree — from a university
  23. chest — of your body
  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