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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 120 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: sharp · chest · squash · coach · cold · rash · degree · rush

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Have you met the new head ________________?
  3. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  6. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  9. Don't do anything ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  14. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  23. That must've been a ________________.
  24. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. rush — to hurry
  4. sharp — clever
  5. coach — pulled by horses
  6. rush — hurry
  7. cold — an illness
  8. sharp — with an edge
  9. rash — hasty
  10. cold — not warm
  11. rash — a series
  12. degree — temperature
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. rash — on the skin
  15. degree — from a university
  16. squash — the sport
  17. chest — a box
  18. chest — of your body
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. chest — of your body
  22. squash — the vegetable
  23. rush — a thrill
  24. squash — to crush

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