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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: rest · cold · cabinet · march · cue · hand · degree · kid

  1. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  2. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  6. What do you think of the new ________________?
  7. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  16. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  17. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — what's left
  2. cue — for pool
  3. degree — from a university
  4. kid — child
  5. march — the month
  6. cabinet — ministers
  7. cue — a signal
  8. cold — not warm
  9. cue — a hint
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. march — music
  12. degree — an amount
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. cold — an illness
  15. rest — a break
  16. cabinet — a cupboard
  17. rest — what's left
  18. hand — help
  19. cabinet — ministers
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. kid — to tease
  22. march — the month
  23. hand — in cards
  24. degree — temperature

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