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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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468
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: kid · coach · date · kick · degree · mine · pitcher · face

  1. He is an ace ________________.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  9. Have you met the new head ________________?
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. Have you settled on a ________________?
  12. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  13. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  18. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  21. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  22. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — in baseball
  2. degree — from a university
  3. kick — a thrill
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. degree — temperature
  8. face — part of the head
  9. coach — a trainer
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. face — to confront
  13. coach — pulled by horses
  14. kid — to tease
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. degree — an amount
  17. kick — with a leg
  18. date — on the calendar
  19. mine — for digging
  20. kick — in football
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. face — to point toward
  23. kid — child
  24. date — the fruit

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