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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: kick · net · court · straw · bat · lash · wake · degree

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  3. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  12. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  13. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. wake — before a funeral
  3. lash — an eyelash
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. kick — a thrill
  6. bat — the animal
  7. court — of law
  8. net — in sport
  9. court — of a king
  10. kick — in football
  11. wake — a trail
  12. kick — with a leg
  13. net — after costs
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. lash — a whip stroke
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. net — for catching
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. degree — an amount
  21. lash — to lash out
  22. degree — temperature
  23. degree — from a university
  24. straw — dry grass

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