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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: degree · rest · chest · scale · cold · kick · staff · stock

  1. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  2. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  3. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  6. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  7. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  8. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The ________________ market has crashed.
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. rest — what's left
  3. staff — a stick
  4. cold — an illness
  5. rest — what's left
  6. kick — a thrill
  7. staff — employees
  8. rest — a break
  9. chest — of your body
  10. kick — in football
  11. degree — from a university
  12. cold — not warm
  13. stock — shares
  14. scale — size or range
  15. stock — a soup base
  16. scale — in music
  17. degree — temperature
  18. chest — of your body
  19. chest — a box
  20. stock — goods
  21. degree — an amount
  22. kick — with a leg
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. scale — for weighing

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