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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: degree · rest · kid · chest · spring · ruler

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  9. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. chest — a box
  3. ruler — for measuring
  4. chest — of your body
  5. degree — from a university
  6. degree — temperature
  7. spring — of water
  8. rest — what's left
  9. rest — a break
  10. spring — a coil
  11. kid — child
  12. rest — what's left
  13. chest — of your body
  14. ruler — a monarch
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. ruler — for measuring
  17. spring — the season
  18. degree — an amount

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