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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: bat · degree · saw · hand · mine · march · safe · drill

  1. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  2. She's very handy with a ________________.
  3. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. He works in a ________________ mill.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — in cards
  2. saw — the tool
  3. safe — a strongbox
  4. march — the month
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. march — the month
  7. degree — from a university
  8. safe — out of danger
  9. march — music
  10. bat — the animal
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. drill — a practice
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. safe — out of danger
  15. degree — an amount
  16. saw — past of 'see'
  17. degree — temperature
  18. drill — army training
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. saw — the tool
  21. hand — help
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. mine — for digging
  24. drill — the tool

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