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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: charge · kid · degree · cold · ground · hide · file · rash

  1. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. The tickets are free of ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  6. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  7. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  8. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. charge — a price
  3. kid — to tease
  4. degree — an amount
  5. hide — to keep secret
  6. ground — the earth
  7. rash — on the skin
  8. rash — a series
  9. cold — not warm
  10. ground — crushed
  11. kid — child
  12. cold — an illness
  13. charge — electricity
  14. rash — hasty
  15. ground — a position
  16. hide — animal skin
  17. file — a document
  18. hide — to keep secret
  19. degree — temperature
  20. charge — in control
  21. file — a tool
  22. degree — from a university
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. file — a line of people

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