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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: chair · hide · degree · squash · race · mine

  1. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. race — a contest
  2. squash — the sport
  3. chair — a leader
  4. hide — animal skin
  5. degree — an amount
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. hide — to keep secret
  8. degree — from a university
  9. squash — to crush
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. mine — for digging
  12. race — the arms race
  13. hide — to keep secret
  14. degree — temperature
  15. squash — the vegetable
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. race — humankind
  18. mine — belonging to me

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