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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. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  12. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  23. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. bear — to put up with
  3. cold — an illness
  4. degree — from a university
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. ruler — a monarch
  7. chest — of your body
  8. kid — to tease
  9. chest — a box
  10. kid — child
  11. bear — the animal
  12. ruler — for measuring
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. bank — for money
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. chest — of your body
  17. bank — of a river
  18. cold — not warm
  19. degree — temperature
  20. bear — the animal
  21. row — a line
  22. bank — for money
  23. ruler — for measuring
  24. row — to paddle

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