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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: degree · rule · cold · land · lash · kick · spell · field

  1. When are we going to ________________?
  2. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  3. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  11. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  19. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  20. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. lash — a whip stroke
  3. rule — government
  4. cold — not warm
  5. land — ground
  6. degree — from a university
  7. land — a country
  8. cold — an illness
  9. spell — letters
  10. lash — to lash out
  11. kick — in football
  12. spell — magic
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. degree — temperature
  15. lash — an eyelash
  16. field — a subject
  17. field — farmland
  18. kick — with a leg
  19. rule — to rule out
  20. kick — a thrill
  21. degree — an amount
  22. spell — a short time
  23. field — for sport
  24. rule — a law

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