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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 116 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: hand · file · degree · pit · bear · drill · cold · perch

  1. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  2. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  9. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  16. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — a practice
  2. drill — army training
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. pit — a fruit stone
  5. hand — help
  6. cold — an illness
  7. degree — an amount
  8. bear — the animal
  9. pit — a hole
  10. file — a line of people
  11. cold — not warm
  12. file — a tool
  13. perch — the fish
  14. hand — in cards
  15. pit — in a race
  16. bear — the animal
  17. degree — temperature
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. file — a document
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. drill — the tool
  22. bear — to put up with
  23. degree — from a university
  24. perch — for a bird

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