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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 · fork · chest · court · press · rash

  1. Don't do anything ________________.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  6. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  11. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  12. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  13. Did you ________________ the button?
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. degree — an amount
  3. fork — in a road
  4. chest — of your body
  5. court — of law
  6. fork — to eat with
  7. chest — of your body
  8. rash — a series
  9. degree — temperature
  10. rash — on the skin
  11. press — newspapers
  12. fork — a garden tool
  13. press — to push
  14. degree — from a university
  15. court — for sport
  16. court — of a king
  17. chest — a box
  18. press — a publisher

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