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

Word bank: straw · drill · degree · craft · chair · cold

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  5. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  11. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. degree — from a university
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. craft — boats
  5. craft — a skill
  6. cold — not warm
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. cold — an illness
  9. drill — the tool
  10. craft — a handicraft
  11. chair — to sit on
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. drill — a practice
  14. chair — a leader
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. degree — temperature
  17. degree — an amount
  18. drill — army training

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