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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: spell · sharp · kid · cold · degree · ball · wake · rock

  1. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  2. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. It's one o'clock ________________.
  18. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  19. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. The King held a masked ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  24. We were using a ________________ as a seat.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a round shape
  2. wake — to stop sleeping
  3. spell — magic
  4. sharp — with an edge
  5. cold — an illness
  6. rock — music
  7. kid — to tease
  8. spell — a short time
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. spell — letters
  11. wake — before a funeral
  12. degree — temperature
  13. degree — from a university
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. ball — a great time
  16. kid — child
  17. sharp — exactly
  18. wake — a trail
  19. sharp — clever
  20. degree — an amount
  21. ball — a dance
  22. cold — not warm
  23. rock — to move gently
  24. rock — a stone

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