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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: cold · date · leaves · bound · kid · key · degree · chest

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  5. That was ________________ to happen.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  11. This piece is in a major ________________.
  12. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. Have you settled on a ________________?
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  23. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  24. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. key — the most important part
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. bound — certain
  6. kid — child
  7. leaves — to go away
  8. chest — of your body
  9. cold — not warm
  10. bound — tied together
  11. key — in music
  12. bound — obliged
  13. degree — from a university
  14. degree — temperature
  15. chest — of your body
  16. leaves — of a tree
  17. cold — an illness
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. degree — an amount
  21. chest — a box
  22. key — for a lock
  23. leaves — lets stay
  24. date — the fruit

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