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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: date · wake · chip · degree · bark · kid · pitch · spring

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  5. Have you settled on a ________________?
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  10. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  16. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  23. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. spring — a coil
  3. degree — an amount
  4. chip — in a computer
  5. date — on the calendar
  6. degree — temperature
  7. pitch — completely
  8. kid — child
  9. pitch — a sports field
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. spring — the season
  12. kid — to tease
  13. pitch — a sales talk
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. chip — to eat
  16. date — the fruit
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. chip — for betting
  19. bark — to shout
  20. bark — of a tree
  21. spring — of water
  22. wake — to stop sleeping
  23. bark — a dog's sound
  24. wake — a trail

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