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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: club · chest · jam · degree · fine · hand · band · bat

  1. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  2. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  14. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  15. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  22. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. Tom got himself in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. jam — to spread on bread
  2. fine — all right
  3. degree — from a university
  4. chest — of your body
  5. hand — in cards
  6. degree — temperature
  7. band — a ring
  8. fine — high quality
  9. bat — the animal
  10. hand — help
  11. jam — in traffic
  12. chest — of your body
  13. fine — a penalty
  14. club — for golf
  15. band — a rubber band
  16. band — a music group
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. chest — a box
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. club — for dancing
  22. club — a group
  23. degree — an amount
  24. jam — a tight spot

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