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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 116 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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. The light ________________ burned out.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  13. I've got to change the light ________________.
  14. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  21. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  22. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. bulb — for light
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. mine — for digging
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. degree — an amount
  8. degree — from a university
  9. bulb — of a plant
  10. degree — temperature
  11. game — a match
  12. fan — to cool the air
  13. bulb — for light
  14. fan — a supporter
  15. cold — an illness
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. bat — the animal
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. present — there
  21. fan — a supporter
  22. present — a gift
  23. cold — not warm
  24. present — the time now

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