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

Word bank: pit · court · kid · degree · perch · march · squash · ground

  1. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  10. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  13. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  22. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. court — of law
  3. degree — an amount
  4. court — for sport
  5. pit — a fruit stone
  6. march — music
  7. perch — the fish
  8. ground — a position
  9. pit — a hole
  10. ground — the earth
  11. court — of a king
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. ground — crushed
  14. degree — from a university
  15. march — the month
  16. kid — child
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. degree — temperature
  19. squash — to crush
  20. kid — to tease
  21. pit — in a race
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. squash — the vegetable
  24. march — the month

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