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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: hide · bark · game · snap · kid · cap · degree · court

  1. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  23. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. degree — from a university
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. kid — to tease
  5. hide — to keep secret
  6. snap — to click
  7. game — a match
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. cap — a hat
  10. court — for sport
  11. kid — child
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. bark — to shout
  15. degree — an amount
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. game — wild animals
  18. cap — of ice
  19. court — of law
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. degree — temperature
  22. hide — animal skin
  23. cap — a lid
  24. court — of a king

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