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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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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: scale · cold · drill · net · tear · fork · degree · kid

  1. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  11. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  20. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  23. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — in a road
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. degree — an amount
  5. tear — from crying
  6. fork — a garden tool
  7. cold — an illness
  8. net — in sport
  9. degree — temperature
  10. fork — to eat with
  11. drill — army training
  12. degree — from a university
  13. scale — size or range
  14. cold — not warm
  15. net — after costs
  16. tear — to rip
  17. scale — in music
  18. kid — to tease
  19. drill — a practice
  20. scale — for weighing
  21. tear — from crying
  22. net — for catching
  23. drill — the tool
  24. kid — child

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